


Quick Bright Things

by ChippewaFalls



Series: Stubborn Love Series [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 38,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChippewaFalls/pseuds/ChippewaFalls
Summary: Lily sneaks into her best friend Scorpius' cottage at 3 in the morning - only problem, it isn't Scorpius' cottage.
Relationships: Albus/Original Character(s), Lily Luna Potter/Lysander Scamander, Rose Weasley/Original Male Character(s), Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Series: Stubborn Love Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062689
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her eyes tracked slowly around the room, realizing that Lysander wasn’t in the wrong place - she was.

“Lily.”

The voice waking the youngest Potter sounded familiar, but she wasn’t alert enough to place it. Instead she was slowly walking through a meadow half in a dream. A breeze from the open window sent a chill up her arm so she wrapped the duvet tighter around herself, trying desperately to stay in the meadow. 

“Potter you’ve gotta get up.”

A hand touched her shoulder trying to rouse her, but she swatted it away and turned towards the open window, letting the smell of last night’s rain send her back to her memories.

“Let me be...” 

She insisted towards the tense voice. It clearly wasn’t Scorpius. The accent was too middle-class to be a Malfoy, but who else would be in his cottage Lily wasn’t sure. Honestly, she was finding it hard to even care. 

“Seriously. You can’t be here right no-”

“Why not? What in Godric’s name is so bloody urgent?!”

Lily erupted from the bed and flung the first thing she could find, in this case her lipstick, at the increasingly panicked voice. To her surprise, the stranger caught it before it could collide with his shoulder. 

“Laurel is on her way ‘round and she’s not gonna fancy there being another woman in my bed!” 

Her eyes narrowed at the blonde standing at the side of the bed, taking in his figure. He was tall - then again for her petite frame most people seemed tall. His broad shoulders could have made him a very imposing presence if his expression wasn’t full of panic. Yet it was his eyes that finally placed him. Not their color, though they were a memorable shade of green. It was their softness; their accessibility. There was no one with more kind eyes than Lysander Scamander.

One of her feet dropped to the floor and instead of Scorpius’ plush, blue, rug there was just a short, beige carpet that seemed to scratch at her toes.

Her eyes tracked slowly around the room, realizing that Lysander wasn’t in the wrong place - she was. 

There were far too many memories hung about the walls. A shelf full of photographs of Lysander laughing with his twin brother and their family were by the door and a pennant for the Chudley Cannons was pinned over a dresser. In the end, her eyes ended up staring back at herself in a mirror. She didn’t meet her own gaze; instead her attention went straight to the frizzy, matted mess of red waves atop her head. Then to her eye-liner that seemed to have melted down her left cheek. She huffed at her freckles peeking through where her foundation had brushed away.

Climbing out of the bed, she flattened her shirt- which was buttoned in all the wrong places.

“I take it this isn’t Scorpius’ cottage, then, yeah?”

The blonde’s apprehension started to ease and he even laughed lightly at her question, 

“He’s next door, but one. Though I suppose they all look the same at 3am...especially when you climb in a window rather than using the front door.”

Lily would have been offended by his snide comment, but it was clear that if anything, he was impressed by her ability to scale a building in heels. 

She found herself meeting his laughter with a smile before pinching at the bridge of her nose. So much of the previous night was just a blur of bright colors and loud voices. The last real memory she had was raising a pint in celebration of the Cannon’s latest victory. All thanks to a great catch by their new seeker; a certain Scamander.

A huff of annoyance followed her returning memories, waking up in the bed of yet another quidditch player was officially a bad habit. She didn’t need to catch another glimpse of herself in the mirror to know what a mess she’d become. 

It took another sweep of the room to find her bag. Half of its belongings were strewn about the floor so she kicked the make-up and empty potion vials back into it and then dug for her wand. 

“Climb into Malfoy’s window often?”

Instead of answering, she twisted her wand around her hair and the knots quickly straightened, reaching past her shoulders at its full length.

While Lily spent a good amount of time in Chudley, she hadn’t had the chance to spend it with the newest team member. Instead she could only rely on his reputation: the wizarding world’s newest golden boy. It wasn’t just the press either, Lily had never heard an ill word spoken about him. Well, not about his character anyway, Scorpius had a few choice words about his attention span. 

“How would you enter a house in the dead of night with the front door locked?”

She glanced just passed the mirror to watch his reaction and was glad to see that his eyes had drifted to the floor. He kicked at a loose floorboard while she pulled a handkerchief from her bag and, in one motion, wiped all the make-up from her face. She folded her handkerchief in half and then in half again before flipping it over and giving it a shake. The mess of mascara and eye shadow had disappeared and it was perfectly clean again. 

“You climb into Scorpius’ bed often too?”

And that was the question of a gentleman? She wanted to laugh at finding a flaw in his perfect facade, but when she peaked up at him around her bangs his expression puzzled her. She’d seen enough judgemental glances to know the signs. Tightened eyebrows, a narrowed gaze, looking down their noses - but in Lysander all the youngest Potter saw was curiosity. 

He held out the lipstick she’d thrown in yet another gesture of good faith.

She snatched the tube back, “What if I do?”

“Sorry...s’not my business…” Lysander held his hands out quickly to show he meant no ill will before backing towards the doorway, “It’s just…” He scratched at his eyebrow with the back of his hand, fumbling for the right words, “I mean bloody hell, if Scorp’s been waking up next to you everyday and still brooding like he does I don’t think there’s anything’ll make him happy.”

He laughed again before immediately biting his bottom lip as if they had said too much.

Scorpius married the love of his life when they were only 19. He and Rose were the perfect picture of true love - right up until they got divorced five years in. Now, three years of being fully separated, Scorp still hadn’t recovered - though he put on a good show of it.

But of course, the world’s best bloke would be able to see how unhappy her friend was. It was unnerving how chivalrous this kid could be.

He wasn’t any better than Scorpius. He wasn’t any better than her. He was just some kid from the south of London with kind eyes, a 100-watt smile and not enough press dedicated to discovering his secrets. 

She undid the mismatched buttons on her shirt and was entertained by the way Lysander’s cheeks seemed to blush before he quickly turned to look at the wall. She liked that she could make him nervous. 

“You sound jealous, Sander’,” she met him at the doorway after fixing up her shirt, noticing that his own was still hanging loosely on his shoulders. “Which is odd since I crawled into your bed last night,” she took the bottom of his shirt and coyly started pulling the buttons together, “and you didn’t bother to make a move...”

Her head tilted slightly to one side and she reached around his neck to fold his collar into place, purposely drawing closer to him. 

“You were pissed drunk LP. It’s a wonder you didn’t fall off the side of my flat.”

He was putting on a brave face, but she caught his eyes wandering over her. 

Not to be deterred, she moved her arms as if to imitate a bird’s wingspan. Then brought one pointer finger to her nose before repeating the action with her other hand, emphasizing how close their faces were by nearly tapping him as well.

“I’m sober now…” Her eyes never left his and a grin spread across her lips. 

“That looks good on you.”

Her grin fell when, instead of falling for her seduction and snogging her, he greeted her with an honest smile.

“What?”

His hand reached out and brushed some hair from her face as if he’d done it a hundred times before and Lily felt butterflies take off in her stomach.

“The smile,” he reached out again and ran his thumb over her bottom lip as if it wasn’t an intimate touch, “You’ve been awfully broody these past months too.”

Lily was thrown again. Lysander didn’t have a hint of flirtation in his voice despite her efforts or their close proximity. He wasn’t any less nervous than moments ago, yet somehow managed to also show complete confidence.

Who was this person staring back at her? Sander had always been a good mate growing up. Down for anything and not afraid of making a fool of himself. That came in handy since the general consensus from Hogwarts was that he and his brother were both a bit odd. Lorcan had memorized the entire Hogwarts syllabus in their third year while Lysander...he had a tendency to daydream. 

She remembered watching him during their fifth year, always counting clouds. She’d never admit that she had a crush on the young blonde and it didn’t matter anyways. Kit Wood snogged her on the way home for summer holiday that year and her heart was whisked away.

It wasn’t until Lysander made the Cannon’s roster that year that Lily even had a reason to remember her childhood folly. Watching their matches it was a wonder that he was such an accomplished seeker. Half the time she’d swear he was still counting clouds. 

“Can you go now?”

She rolled her eyes and stormed past him on her way to the front door, “Honestly Sander, if you’re not interested in having a bit of fun why did you bother letting me stay in the first place?”

“Ta, Potter. Wild thestrals couldn’t have moved ya from that bed last night.” Lysander’s long stride gave him the advantage and he was able to interrupt the red-head’s path, “but, as you’ve proven, you’re stone sober now aren’t ya…”

“What are you on about? Do you want me gone or not?” She put a hand on her hip, anger starting to overwhelm her thoughts.

“This isn’t how you got in, was it?” 

“Are you serious?” Smoke all but billowing from her ears “You want me to climb out the bloody window?”

“You’re the one that climbed in it.”

He shrugged with a mischievous smirk that would rival her brother James. His smug expression would have sent her over the edge had she not realized that it was the only reason he stopped her to begin with.

He was trying to rile her up again; just pushing her buttons. Payback, she realized, for her attempts at seducing him. She had underestimated the blonde; he was more aware than he let on.

“Fine.” 

Lily stretched out her fingers from the tight fist they’d been curled into and turned on her heels.

“Come off it...I was only havin’ a laugh” 

She was happy to hear his footsteps trailing behind her on the way to the bedroom again, but they didn’t slow her down.

“This relationship of yours,” She swung her camera that she just realized was still on his desk over her shoulder before tossing her bag out the already open window, “isn’t going to last long if - Lauren was it? Can’t get over what amounts to an honest mistake.” It landed two meters below with a thud and spilled its contents onto the grass. 

Then the youngest Potter swung one leg over the ledge while Lysander responded, “My relationship isn’t going to last past tea. I rung Laurel ‘round to break things off.”

“You’re dumping her over breakfast?!” Lily pulled herself back into the house ducking her head under the window, “Who does that? No one wants to cry into a piece of toast at 10 in the bloody morning!” 

“We would’ve had it out last night, but she couldn’t get out here until late with work and it’s not like I could’ve done it then seeing as you were strewn about my bed…” Lysander simply shrugged, unbothered.

“What’s it matter if the girl sees me or not if the plan was to leave her anyways? Why’ve you got me hanging half-way out your damn window?”

“You know why it matters.”

His answer nearly took the wind out of the young Potter. They both knew she was all too familiar with the particular pain of infidelity. She had been trying to make light of an uncomfortable situation, but once again she underestimated the twin.

“I’ve made a choice to not be with her anymore. And I know it won’t be brilliant to hear, but the kindest thing I can do is be honest about how I feel.”

She had gotten so used to expecting the worst from people, but she wanted more than anything to take him at his word. 

“Fair enough.” She started with a hesitant smirk, “but if you weren’t already with someone...and if I wasn’t six shots in...you definitely woulda snogged me, yeah?”

She clicked the camera and captured the moment that hung between them, grinning like before.

He returned a smile of his own, “Suppose we’ll have to find ourselves in those circumstances to know.”

The way his eyes drifted to look at her lips, she was certain that his moral convictions were all that stood between them snogging there in the window. What she wasn’t certain about was the backflip her stomach did at the thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “People only get more complex the closer you get to them, Lysander. They do not get simpler.”

“Would ya stop looking at me like that?”

“Will you tell me the full truth of the situation?”

The twin boys stared one another down, each waiting for the other to break. It was a silly ritual since they both knew who always won. Lorcan used his thumb and forefinger to adjust where his square frames sat on his nose without dropping his glance. 

“Okay fine.” Lysander threw his hands up in defeat and slouched back in his armchair, disappointed in himself. Yet, as he looked out the window just over his shoulder and remembered the image of Lily Potter continuing to argue with him while she was hanging half-way out of one similar, he found himself smiling. 

In moments such as these, it’s important to remember that Lorcan and Lysander are identical twins. That means that they have the same jawline and the same upbringing. It means they shared secrets with each other that they’d never tell anyone else and it means Lysander understood that when Lorcan ended an argument with ‘all right then,’ what he really meant was, ‘when you realize what you’re doing is stupid, I’ll be around to say I told ya so.’

So when Lorcan saw a grin starting to spread across his brother’s face, he knew the answer to his question could only mean trouble. 

“If nothing happened, then why won’t you tell me who it didn’t happen with?”

Lysander let his head fall backwards to stare at the ceiling with a groan. “Fine, but I don’t want to hear a lecture after I tell you, yeah?” He received a nod in agreement and let out a deep breath before answering.

“Lily Potter?!”

Lorcan repeated back unable to contain his horror.

“You agreed, no lectures!”

Lysander sprung up from his chair and stormed into the kitchen to run from whatever advice his brother was now intending to give him. He grabbed a glass and used his wand to fill it with water as Lorcan chased him down.

“That was before you told me Lily Potter climbed into your bed last night! Sander, she is the last complication you need in your life right now!”

Lysander took a drink of his water instead of replying.

“You realize what they’ll write about you if you’re seen with her? The scrutiny a relationship with her will bring on you?” Still, Lysander seemed undeterred so Lorcan continued, “You know the tension it would cause on your team? With Wood-”

“She and Kit have been over for years and besides he’s an arse.”

He sat the glass back on the counter and tried to run again, but Lorcan stood in his path.

“Do you even hear yourself right now?” Lorcan followed his brother’s eyes until he met his gaze, “I’ve never known you to talk about people that way-”

“Well I’ve made an unfaithful prats exception.”

Lysander pushed passed his brother and continued down the hall into his bedroom. Lorcan knew he had already made his point when his brother started picking up the dirty clothes that scattered the floor rather than continue the conversation. 

He stopped in the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest. This was always his brother’s fate. The whims of his heart were what guided him, like a ship’s sail. It was inevitable that the winds would steer him straight into a storm bound to rip through the mast and leave him drifting aimlessly on the waves.

Lorcan wasn’t guided by something so fickle as emotions. He, instead, navigated his life by the stars. Constant and steady, always knowing where his next step would take him. He would always see the storms coming. 

“Okay, fine then. Let’s continue with your logic shall we? What does it say about her judgement? to fall in love with someone like Wood?”

Lysander tossed some of his practice gear, covered in a thick layer of mud, into the hamper. 

“It says that she chooses to see the good in people.”

Kit Wood and Lily Potter seemed destined in so many ways that no one batted an eye when they finally made it official. And they played their parts so well for the cameras over the years. When he made the Cannons roster it was like poetry; Lily Potter and Rose Weasley’s men would be playing on the same pitch. 

Lysander had been playing with the Appleby Arrows back then. His biggest concern was if he’d see any playing time. Then, suddenly, the only headline that could knock Scorpius and Rose’s divorce off the front page was Kit’s string of affairs and the endless opinion pieces about how Lily should react. 

She withdrew from public life for months, which, for most people, wouldn’t have been such an issue. Rose ran off to another country and most people didn’t notice, but Lily Potter? She seemed to know everyone and somehow be everywhere...until she just wasn’t.

When she did finally step back into the spotlight it was on the arm of a new bloke every two weeks and a ‘screw-you’ attitude towards the press. 

He knew the parade of suitors was really what had Lorcan up in arms, afraid that his brother would just be another in her line-up of coping mechanisms, but Lysander wasn’t afraid of her bravado. He saw a passion for life in Lily; a desire to make the most of every day.

“What about Malfoy then?”

“What about Malfoy?” Lysander fell backwards onto his bed in defeat of the never-ending barrage of practical questions he should’ve been concerned about.

“You said she climbed into your bed by accident...it begs the question, who’s bed did she mean to wake up in?”

Lysander propped himself up on his elbows, “You just assume it was Scorpius?”

He made sure to sound annoyed, even though he insinuated as much to Lily the other night. 

“It’s a reasonable assumption. He seems to be the only male constant in her life apart from her brothers. Not to mention the suspension he received for hexing his own teammate after the whole scandal broke. Logic dictates that their bond is more than friendship. And you don’t need the captain of your team-”

“Stop. Just stooooop.” Lysander fell back onto the bed again and covered his face with a pillow. He screamed into it for three seconds and then sat back up as if he hadn’t made a scene. “How was your week, Lorcan? Speak to mum did ya?”

Lorcan let out a sigh before adjusting his glasses, “She was upset to hear you and Laurel split up, but I explained your heart in the situation...won’t she be chuffed to hear about your new prospects?”

Lysander threw the pillow at his brother for teasing him and Lorcan tossed it right back. They shared a laugh, which was welcomed by both after a slightly heated exchange.

“It’s Lily Potter, mate,” Lysander picked at a string on his duvet, “even if I did fancy her it’s not likely she’d look my way.”

Lysander was only half-lying. He knew he’d caught her eye, but he wasn’t sure it would ever be anything more than a game. 

Lorcan answered with a simple shrug, “All right, then.”

* * *

The snitch darted around Kit’s broom lazily at practice a few weeks later. It was as if it knew Lysander had no desire to capture it and so had no need to run away. 

“Scamander look out!” 

The warning came too late and a bludger slammed into the young seeker’s ribs. The force pushed him down the pitch before pushing him off his broom entirely. If the cracked rib hadn’t taken his breath away, the swift propulsion towards the earth did the trick. He heard more shouting and saw a couple of his teammates pull out their wands before the edges of the world started to blur and eventually fade to black.

“Hey. Sander. Come on, you daft fool. If you open your eyes I can keep you out of hospital.”

It’s easy to think Scorpius’ tense tone was because he didn’t want another injury listed on his team’s record. After all, this was the third time Lysander had been taken out by a bludger that season alone. He had a bad habit of drifting into thought and really wasn’t a multi-tasker. His lack of mindfulness was a high risk factor for his chosen profession and one of the reasons the Arrows gave him such little time on the pitch. It was also a caveat his new team manager issued when he was signed to the Cannons. 

“Is it enough if I just open one...but I make it look like I’m winking at you?”

His eyes peeked open, letting the light in slowly. They took in his surroundings, but everything was blurry. After a moment or so, the clouds started to take shape, followed by trees and finally landing on Scorpius who was sitting next to him. 

His fingers picked at the blades of grass at his side to confirm he was safe on the ground before he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Rotating his arm, he was surprised that all of the motion hadn’t caused pain.

“Dawsey cast a suspension field to float you down. The bludger only bruised a rib. The tonic will’ve reduced any swelling. I was told if you didn’t wake up after two hours I had to take you to hospital…”

“Cheers mate.”

He pulled his knees up to his chest with a deep inhale - overjoyed that he felt the air fill his lungs. In the scheme of Quidditch injuries, this one didn’t seem to even rank in his top six.

“You have got to pay more attention.” Scorpius continued in a tone that made him seem more than two years older. “These injuries are disruptions, Sander. They take time away from our practices, they take attention off of your talent.”

“You really think I have talent?” he asked too eagerly to maintain any level of cool.

“I think you have a talent for getting yourself hurt.” Scorpius tossed the quaffle he’d been passing back and forth in his hands at Lysander’s head - but the blonde caught it before it could collide, “And you have incredible reflexes - when you bother to pay attention.” 

Lysander tossed the ball back to his teammate, “I know, okay. I get it. I’ll try to stay focused. I’ll work on it.”

Scorpius was the first to stand, and then he reached a hand down to his teammate. 

After getting to his feet, Scorpius continued to grip his hand, “You do not lack focus. You lack discipline. You lack the resoluteness to act or not act and thus get lost in a maze of possibilities. You want to do better?” The Slytherin pulled his teammates closer to him and squeezed his hand tighter in a silent threat, “Keep your personal life off my pitch.”

Relief swept over him when Malfoy released his hand and turned to leave, but it rushed back out like a wave retreating from the shore as the words settled in his mind. He must’ve been talking about Lily, but how much of the story did he know? What even was her version of that night? Why did Malfoy care about that night? The possibilities started swirling around in Lysander’s mind just as Scorpius accused and he quickly shook them away.

“Nothing’s happened.” He shouted after the retreating shadow, “I don’t know what she’s told you mate, but she’s having a laugh.” 

“It doesn’t take an Auror to figure the two of you out. What with the way you’ve been dancing around each other the last couple of weeks.”

Scorpius stopped and seemed to hang his head before placing his hands in his pockets and turning back around.

“Look, whatever feelings she has stirred in you, does not concern me, but understand that she is indeed having a laugh and it is at your expense.”

“It’s just...you do seem a bit concern-”

“Because pining for her had you staring at Wood for half our scrimmage today instead of doing your job.”

It was such a logical and calmly delivered reason that Lysander had to swallow his next accusation. Instead, he stared at the ground for a moment and kicked at the dirt. It had always unnerved him to argue with Scorpius. He didn’t get riled up like most people would. Even Lorcan, in all his wisdom, would need to take a deep breath in a heated debate. Malfoy rarely seemed to even register anger.

“There’s just something different with her...” Finding the right words was always difficult for Lysander so he tended to ramble through all the ones that occurred to him until it made sense, “I know I don’t really know her...I don’t even know what I want from her...but she was chaotic and gorgeous and wily and certain...but then you toss in her past with Kit and you and-”

“And this is why you spent two hours laying in the grass while your bones mended.”

Scorpius had taken his hands from his pockets to cross them over his chest. He didn’t seem moved by Lysander’s impassioned speech anymore than he had been angered by the accusations.

“People only get more complex the closer you get to them, Lysander. They do not get simpler.” 

Scorpious stood over the young Scamander again, but this time it wasn’t intimidating. He didn’t have the icy stare of a detached teammate, but the conviction of someone who believed in what he was saying.

“Do you know why that is? Because you learn to expect things. To expect reactions, expect forgiveness, expect opinions...and people like Lily...they take pleasure in circumventing expectations.”

“That’s half the fun though innit? Not knowing what’s gonna happen next?”

“Sure.” Malfoy shrugged matter-of-factly, “Up until she petitions you for divorce and moves to Cairo.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and I see the world- we see relationships different than most. Sander especially. He’s no concern for his own heart and if you give him reason he’s going to fall head first...are you really telling me you plan to catch him?

Lily had been working in the administrative offices of the Wizengamot since she finished Hogwarts. She was studying to be a judge for one of the lower courts, but until she finished her exams she would spend her days in the office of Judge Amara, handling paperwork and researching case law for whatever matters the Wizengamot was currently ruling on. 

“Ms. Potter. I trust you had an eventful weekend.”

The judge swung her official cloak from off her shoulders so it landed on the back of her armchair after only two steps into her office. 

“Sadly I didn’t get to read about any of it with my morning tea. Seems the Minister’s new house elf initiative is more important.”

She delivered her question without a hint of irony. Her dry sense of humor was what Lily liked most about her boss. 

“It is a real shame that The Prophet thought the political goings on in this country would be of more import than who I’m snogging.”

Lily sat a stack of yellow papers covered in her scribbled handwriting onto the Judge’s desk.

“So you are snogging someone then?”

“No.” Lily finally broke from their dry tone to let out a soft laugh. “Sadly there really wasn’t anything of note these last few days.” 

The youngest Potter pushed her bangs out of her face before flipping through a stack of files next to the notes she had sat down. They seemed to be files from the civil proceedings, not anything the Wizengamot would be processing. 

“Very well, then. Suppose we’ll just have to settle for getting some work done.”

Suddenly a name inked across the signature line of one folder caught her eye: Rose Weasley-Malfoy

“Judge? Are these processed? Should I go ahead and file them?”

“No no dear. These have been marked with errors. They need to be sent upstairs to alert those who filed the petitions.”

Lily shoved the paper she had been examining back into its folder quickly to avoid her boss thinking anything of her interest. 

“Oh, well I can do that.” She offered again, starting to piece together what she had just stumbled onto. 

“Don’t be silly, dear,” Judge Amara waved her off, “Someone will be round to fetch them. Have you finished the notes for this afternoon’s hearing?”

“Yes” Lily responded, urgently pushing the yellow papers forward as if it were evidence, “And really, it’s no trouble.” She picked up the stack of errored folders “I actually have some friends up on that level that I haven’t seen in a bit so I’ll drop these by and say a quick hello.”

Before her boss could decline again she had backed out of the office and stormed down the hallway into the lift. Once the golden gates closed she dropped the stack to the floor and cranked the lever to send her to the correct level. Then she dove to her knees and furiously started searching the stack for the name that had jumped out at her.

She felt her heart sink before realizing it was just the lift navigating its way through the ministry. How could this have happened? Why did she have to see it? 

The elevator jerked forward and half the folders lost their contents, but Lily kept her search until she finally found it. 

I Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy do hereby agree and consent to dissolve my marriage with Rose Weasley-Malfoy in answer to the petition sent….

There was a lot of legal annotations after that so Lily’s eyes fell to the bottom of the page where a bright colored tab had been stuck to the edge of the page:

I_____________ do hereby agree and consent to dissolve my marriage to Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy in answer to the petition sent….

That line was missing Rose’s signature, which meant the divorce decree that had been issued was null and void, which meant that Rose and Scorpius were still legally married. 

“Should I ask why you’re on the floor or is this Potter mayhem I’d be better off avoiding?”

Lily’s sudden grip of fear was calmed when she looked up to see it had been Freddie Royce to discover her hunched over the stack of papers like a mad woman. She was in such a state of shock she hadn’t felt the lift stop or even heard the arrival announced. 

“Since when have you ever distanced yourself from Potter mayhem?” 

She asked with a smirk as her brother’s best mate bent down to help her clean up the mess of paperwork that now littered the floor. Freddie had grown up with Lily’s oldest brother James. He introduced James to the woman who was now his wife - though her brother’s version of the story doesn’t give Freddie as much credit. 

After they shoved all the papers back into folders they each took a stack and stepped out of the lift, which was now angrily reminding them that they shouldn’t block the gate.

“I just need to get these to-”

“LP...you were just crouched over that stack of folders like the wicked witch about to dip an apple in her cauldron. I’m willing to bet you’re not handing all of those papers over.”

Lily raised her eyes in confusion, “what potion is someone brewing that they’d dip fruit into it?”

Freddie just waved his hand to tell her to forget about it. He was raised by his muggle mother and now worked for the muggle liaison office and thus had a habit of making references that went over the rest of their heads. 

“Look, LP,” Lily’s shoulders tensed at the second use of the nickname. Not because she hated her initials, but because to the wizarding world they didn’t stand for Lily Potter, but for Little Potter. “You can do what your brother did and ignore my advice only to realize later that I was right all along or you can share with the class and live happily ever after in Romania with the love of your life.”

They stopped at an unoccupied desk and Lily sat her stack of folders down before leaning on them. 

“I saw something I wasn’t supposed to see, but now that I’ve seen it I can’t unsee it.” She started processing outloud, “And what I shouldn’t have seen is going to be huge news if I don’t take care of it discreetly” her pace quickened as her thoughts became less certain, “and even if it doesn’t get out to the press it’s still going to be possibly life-altering to those involved” she kept going without a breath, “and that might be for the best, but it could also be for the absolute worst” her hands were gesturing as quickly as her words were flying out, “Cause I mean it’s taken years for those involved to move past the thing I can’t unsee and once I show them they won’t be able to unsee it either - but it should be me who shows them right?”

Freddie sat his stack of folders next to Lily’s with a loud ‘thud’. 

“The way I see it, withholding information from someone means you’re making their decision for them,” he answered with narrow eyes as if he were trying to solve a riddle, “would you want someone else making your decisions for you?”

Lily knew he knew her answer. Afterall, it was the biggest regret she had in life. Not that she’d fallen for Kit, but that she’d allowed her love for him to overshadow her own wants and ambitions. One decision at a time, she gave up herself to become the person he wanted her to be, but it was never enough. And in the end, knowing he lied or even that he chose someone else wasn’t what left a pit in her stomach; but that when she was left, sitting on the floor of her room alone for the first time in years, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and didn’t recognize the person staring back at her. 

Lily let out a huff using her bottom lip to blow her bangs out of her face, “fatherhood has made you wise, Royce.”

* * *

  
“Infatuated.”

“Hmmm?” Lily looked up from her plate of chips, “Who is? With who?”

Albus rolled his eyes at his sister, “Pay attention, LP,” He walked past her and stole a chip before sitting down across the table, next to his wife, “The Scamander kid thinks you’re fit.” 

“You’re upset because a boy fancies me?” Lily looked to her sister-in-law for support in how immature the conversation was, “Are we twelve years old?” She and Charlotte laughed lightly.

“Maybe we are children” Scorpius scoured into their giggles, “It’s pretty childish to lead him on the way you are.” 

Lily dipped a chip into ketchup and decided to reply whilst chewing it, “It’s harmless flirting.”

Albus opened his mouth to counter, but his wife put a finger to his lips to stop him. Scorpius’ wife was both out of the country and unaware of their intact marriage - so he didn’t have anyone to stop him.

“Harmless to you.” He said curtly, “But I’d appreciate it if, in the future, you played your little games without dragging my livelihood into them.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed in on the blonde at the end of the table. She didn’t react well to guilt. Actually, most forms of negative feedback didn’t work, but guilt was definitely at the top of her ‘don’t bother’ list. 

“Who thinks we should get cake? Personally, I could really go for some cake.”

Albus tried to ease the growing tensions, but the others seemed intent on escalating the conflict.

“Let’s ignore that fact that you’ve too much wealth to pretend that what you make with the Cannons affects your livelihood. Who says I’m playing games? Has the possibility even crossed your mind that I might fancy him too?”

“You may do,” he answered plainly, “for a month. And then you’ll get bored like always.”

“You think so little of me?”

“I think the world of you Lily.” He leaned forward in his seat, showing a rare amount of emotion, “but you and I see the world- we see relationships different than most. Sander especially. He’s no concern for his own heart and if you give him reason he’s going to fall head first...are you really telling me you plan to catch him?”

* * *

The plume of sand whirled around her as ground took solid form again. It took a couple minutes to readjust to her surroundings after letting go of the portkey. She opened her jaw as wide as it would go to try and pop her ears, but they weren’t budging. 

She took a deep breath before starting her way toward the house number she’d been given. Her anxiety hung in the back of her mind like a melody you can’t remember how to resolve.

Lily left her brother’s home furious, but had calmed back down by the next morning. Afterall, it only hurt so bad because it was true. And if she needed a reminder of what heartbreak looked like she didn’t need to look any further than the papers she was clutching.

“Lily? What in Merlin’s name are you doing here?”

It was the not-so-warm greeting she expected from her cousin so she shrugged it off, “are you going to invite me in? It took two port keys to get here.”

Rose backed herself against her door as Lily invited herself into the flat. The walls were empty except for a few holes where photos once hung and the hall was littered with boxes. 

“Are you leaving again?”

“My job requires that I travel.” Rose let the door slam behind them. “So yes, I am leaving Egypt. Is that what you came here to ask? Because if it was you could have simply asked my mother.”

She bit back before pressing passed her cousin.

“Really? I mean does she really know that you’re leaving - cause when you moved from Nepal to Rio she didn’t know until Albus mentioned it. He says hi by the way, so does ‘Lotte.”

Lily peeked into one of the boxes, but Rose was quick to refold the lid just before she could see inside. There was enough tension between them to snap a rubber-band.

“What do you want, Lily?”

As if it were an answer, Lily laid the manila folder onto the table that sat between the women. Her cousin touched the page with her wand and the pages flipped and unfolded until a bright tab stuck out next to the empty signature line. 

“What is this?” She flipped her wand between her fingers absent-mindedly, “Some kind of joke?”

“The fact that I’m the one who has to deliver them is a twist of irony I didn’t expect, but no - it’s not a joke. You never signed your consent. It voids the divorce decree so-”

“So I’ll sign it and we can be done with this.” 

Rose stretched her wand out to the page again to sign, but Lily put a hand over the papers before any ink could touch them.

“These forms were dated, Rose. I’m sorry, but new ones had to be drawn up. You won’t have to do any sort of mediation if you’re happy with the agreed upon terms, but you both will have to sign them again.”

“Then move your hand and I’ll sign them.” 

Rose swatted away her cousin’s arm and Lily backed away from the table. She bit her bottom lip for a moment as she fought within herself to stand her ground. That morning with Lysander had stuck with her for many reasons, but one of them was what he’d said about Scorpius. Her friend needed closure and this was the perfect opportunity to get him some.

“I’ll give you the new petition, but I’m not taking it back with me.”

Rose’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, “What are you playing at?”

Lily made every attempt to sound more resolute in her second attempt. She wasn’t sure if this was the right decision, but she was sure it was the one she wanted to make.

“If you want him to sign them then you have to take them to him.”

Rose tapped the papers so they folded back uniformly before shoving them into her cousins’ chest, “You know I have no intention of seeing him...” She took off toward the front door again and Lily had to chase after her. 

“Look, don’t sign them at all if it’s that big of a deal to you - but the two of you are properly married until these get processed.” 

Lily had to spit out auburn curls after running into her cousin’s back - apparently she had gotten her attention.

“That’s it then,” she spun around to look accusingly at Lily, “this is some sort of ruse to get me back to London?”

Lily shook her head back and forth to try and make it clear, “Scorpius doesn’t know.” Rose’s shoulders tensed at his name, “Look, I could have told someone, anyone about this and made your life a nightmare, but I didn’t...I didn’t even tell Scorp. I owe you...for what happened between me and him.”

Rose huffed having heard enough, and started back towards the kitchen. Lily chased after her again, “I owe looking you in the eye and telling you that I’m sorry for overstepping a line, even if it was way after your divorce was final, and even though I never meant to cross it, and it didn’t even mean anything except we were both very drunk and very heartbroken and too lazy to pull a stranger.”

“Whatever.” Rose made an attempt to sound casual, “It doesn’t matter now anyways.”

“It does matter,” Lily took her cousin’s arm and spun her around so that she had to look at her, “It matters because Scorp tore into me the other night for being reckless and I finally got it. Because he thinks he’s just protecting Sander, which he probably is, but he’s also projecting his own bullshite onto the situation. Because Scorpius fell in love with a woman who had a reckless streak and he’s still wrecked over her.” 

Lily took a quick breath before continuing, the words coming out before they could even fully form in her mind,

“He’s not going to chase after you, Rose. He won’t put himself out there like that, but this is a chance for the two of you. You can make it right again - but you have to do it.”

“What are you even on about? Make things right? I don’t want to be with S-” Rose shook her younger cousin off in an attempt to hide her inability to finish saying the name out loud. Her eyes were starting to well up, “He told me to go...so I went...and I’m happy” She brushed a tear from her cheek, “I’m with Anders, and I’m happy.” 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Brief as lighting in the collied night; so quick bright things come to confusion…”

She had to pull ginger curls out of her mouth after the wind had tossed them across her face, but Lily would never give up the feeling of being tousled by the breeze. The joy of not worrying about where her next step should go because at any moment the world would sway and send her in an entirely different direction. 

Most of her nights were spent out with the usual crowd, a crowd that recently included a certain Scamander. And of all people, Scorpius was the one who kept inviting him along. She couldn’t understand why, with all his concerns, he’d keep throwing the two of them together. Yet night after night, there he was. 

Thinking Malfoy was challenging her to some sort of test, she made a conscious effort to not flirt with that particular seeker, but found herself disappointed when he didn’t flirt with her either.

At first, it sent her mind spinning. Did he not feel the same attraction she did? Had someone told him to stay away? Was her reputation not something he wanted printed next to his? 

A couple weeks in, she decided not to care about his reasons anymore; she was done playing games. Watching Lysander talk Scorpius into shenanigans like Rose and Albus used to set the world right. The seeker seemed to brighten everyone around him and she was happy for Scorp to have that sort of mate around. Especially knowing the secret she was keeping from him. 

It was strange to think back to the morning of waking up in Lysander’s bed. She’d thought him naive, but now she knew it wasn’t that he lacked guile. Instead he seemed to have no desire for it. It wasn’t an act he put on for the press either, Lysander’s world was simply seen through rose-colored glasses. The rain was something to dance in and losing a match meant he’d have more reason to drink a second pint. 

She had to spit her curls out again after spotting her sister-in-law waving her down from three rows up. The Cannons were playing Puddlemere United that morning, which didn’t mean anything to most fans, but it was torture for her brother. Albus had grown up an avid Puddlemere supporter, but his best mate Scorpius decided to play for the Cannons, so now he had to split his loyalties once a year. 

Charlotte greeted the youngest Potter with a kiss on both cheeks.

“How’s our Albus doing this morning?”

“He decided he’d wear a Harpy’s scarf to not offend either team.”

Both women laughed at Al’s expense as they made their way to where he was sitting. 

“LP! You made it! Scorp said you’d be stuck at the Ministry this weekend.” 

Albus wrapped his sister into a bear hug and tangled her in his yellow scarf. 

“If I had good sense I would be,” she spun her way out of the embrace and they all took their seats, “I have a thesis to turn in by next week, but I couldn’t miss watching your internal struggle every time someone scored.”

The teams took the pitch and Charlotte noticed Lily’s attention dart their way. 

“That’s what you couldn’t miss, yeah?”

Lily was surprised to feel heat rush to her cheeks at the insinuation. She pulled her camera out 

as the usual pomp and circumstance of a match opening drew everyone’s attention back to the pitch. 

Once the game had started, everyone fell into their normal rhythms. Albus shouted positive encouragement to both teams, Charlotte chatted with strangers around her, and Lily 

took every opportunity that she wasn’t snapping photos, to shout at the officials for calls that were probably correct.

It was a couple hours later when Lysander caught Lily’s eye again. He made a couple plays for the snitch early on, but now was just hovering near the goalposts watching the sky, “counting clouds again…” 

She didn’t realize she’d spoken her thoughts until Albus asked her what she was talking about. 

“Hmm? Oh, it’s just…” Lily shrugged and nodded at the Cannon seeker, “our seeker can be a bit of a daydreamer is all.”

Suddenly Lysander’s arm stretched up toward the sun and he grabbed onto something that nearly tore him off his broom. Instead of falling, he spun around three times and was left hanging upside down when he proudly extended his arm to reveal the snitch between his thumb and forefinger. 

The crowds leapt to their feet in excitement and confetti rained down on them as the Cannons team surrounded their seeker and helped him back on top of his broom. They took laps around the pitch in celebration, while Albus wrapped his Harpies scarf tighter around his neck as if to assert his neutral position.

“Scorp kept telling me that kid was brilliant. I didn’t believe him.” 

“He hides it well doesn’t he?” Lily asked more to herself than either of her companions. 

* * *

After the crowds had left for home, the team set off fireworks at the pitch. They were drinking and carrying on as if they had all won a world cup. That night they were conquerors. 

Lily lost track of her family half-way through the celebrations and spent the night dancing with one of the chasers, Finn. He spun her around and she caught a glimpse of Scorpius chatting up a brunette near the edge of the pitch. Her heart lifted a bit at the prospect of his happiness and then sunk when she remembered that it meant Rose still hadn’t reached out to him.

She was about to spiral into a melancholy quandary of questioning her choice to keep it from him when another familiar figure caught her eye. Lysander was headed to the end of the pitch, away from the rest of the crowd.

Before she could wander away herself, the music’s tempo slowed and someone took her hand, pulling her close as they started to sway.

“Been a while…” His whisper in her ear sent a tickle down her spine.

“What are you doing Kit?” Lily made sure to meet his eyes, “This isn’t going to happen.”

His charming features seemed more pronounced in the glow of the floating lanterns and occasional fireworks. He smirked before pulling her close to him again, moving a hand to below the small of her back.

“Every time this happens, you say it isn’t going to happen.”

She hated how familiar his touch felt against her skin and tried to find her confidence again. Then she pressed into him so her cheek brushed against the scruff on his chin before whispering matter-of-factly, “This time I mean it.” She moved his hand three inches higher.

“So serious.” He teased, “You’re still pretending to be a good girl then?”

He spun her away.

“You’re an arse.”

She was still swaying in rhythm with Kit, but her eyes caught Lysander’s shadow in the distance.

“Probably. Still,” His calloused hand turned her chin back to him, “I’m the one you keep coming back to...The only one you don’t parade in front of the press.”

“One public humiliation from you was enough, thanks.”

“There’s that wit.” He smirked again coyly as his thumb traced down her cheek and Lily hated herself for enjoying it. “I get it, ya know. You’ve got to play the field...show the world you’re in command of your fate...but I’ll be here when you want that feeling back.”

“What feeling is that?”

Lily’s voice shook a bit as he took her hands in his and held them at his chest. They spun around quicker than the music called for. 

“Being out of control. Being caught up in a current or spinning in a storm.” They slowed again before Kit dipped Lily back, “danger...”

The crowd around them started clapping at their over the top display and Kit pulled Lily back into him once again. She wanted to shove him away; but she also didn’t want to leave. She wanted to slap him across his arrogant face, but another part of her wanted to kiss it. 

“Don’t ever speak to me like that again.” 

She backed out of his hold before pushing through the crowd. Unsure of where she was going, but certain it needed to be away from her ex. The truth in what Kit said tore threw her and she felt her emotions spiraling.

Why did she even dance with him? Why did she let him go on and on like that? Why did she keep finding herself in his arms? In his bed? She told herself it didn’t mean anything. That she was over him and their flings were just more convenient than going out and pulling someone new - but she was disgusted with herself because the truth was that she liked when he wanted her. 

She felt herself shudder from the tears that wanted desperately to flow, but she was refusing to let them. Taking in a deep, shaky breath she realized she had wondered near the goal posts Lysander had also retreated to. She wiped at her face, certain he heard her near sobs, though he didn’t make any move to suggest so.

He had his hands behind his head and was staring pensively up at the stars. Lily instinctively reached for her camera, framing up the pensive expression she didn’t want to forget. She searched his expression as he watched the sky and Lily imagined what it was like to see the world as he did; trying to see the good in the conversation she just left, but there wasn’t anything good about her relationship with Kit. 

It was the reason she assumed Lysander was faking his kindness. That he was somehow manipulating everyone to gain some sort of advantage, but she was the fraud. She was the one pretending to be strong. Pretending to be happy. Surrounding herself with people to hide her loneliness. 

Finally he turned to meet her gaze with a smile and she lowered her lens without ever snapping the shot, feeling rude for intruding on his solitude. 

Bright sparks suddenly blazed through the sky and Sander turned away again to watch them. Lily sat her camera down and laid next to him, resting her head in the crook of his elbow. He wrapped an arm around her while his eyes continued to watch the sparks fading from the sky.

“Brief as lighting in the collied night; so quick bright things come to confusion…”

Shades of orange and gold rained back down before fizzling out and Lily watched his eyes scan the sky with wonder, fully engrossed in the display. 

“It’s from a story my mum used to read us.” Lysander said turning back to her, “It was my favorite for a while ‘cause one of the characters had my name. Kids can be pretty selfish that way ya know?”

Lily smiled at his boyish grin.

“The lovers in the story get put under this spell and then love the wrong people. There’s a lot of misunderstandings and mix-ups and at one point someone’s transfigured into a donkey and then there’s a play within a-” He caught himself getting off topic, “but that passage is from the start of it. Lysander- see, he’s lamenting all the perils of love. Wandering if it’s worth the trouble. And yet, despite all they go through, they all end up happy...mum wouldn’t read a story unless it ended happy.”

Butterflies chased around Lily’s stomach while she watched him smile at his memories. She had to stop underestimating him. “Quick bright things, huh? Suppose that’s us then...” Without thinking twice, she reached out and traced her index finger down his nose, “the confusion part at least...”

“So it’s not just me then?” He smirked, tangling his fingers with hers, “After all, here we are...single...fairly sober...staring at stars...and I’m not sure what you want from me…”

Lily was sure the real answer was more complicated than she could articulate. She was fairly confident that what she ultimately wanted wasn’t something Lysander could give her. However, what she wanted at that moment was to stop dancing around their attraction as if it wasn’t hanging between them in every conversation. She wanted to stop acting like it didn’t drive her crazy to be so close to him. She wanted to give in to the breeze and let it carry her wherever it wanted. 

Grinning, she tapped a finger on her mouth. Lysander laughed to himself and seemed to think it over for a moment before finally leaning in and pressing his lips onto hers in a quick peck. 

It was so innocent, like children playing, and it made Lily giggle in the same way. He brushed some sand off her cheek then left it to rest there, holding her. It wasn’t the forceful gesture that Kit had used. Instead, he held her delicately, like she was a dragonfly that might flutter away at any moment and holding too tightly might damage one of her wings.

She thought they’d had their fun when he pulled her lips onto his again, melting together slowly. It was fragile and intimate and when he started to pull away, she found herself following him so it didn’t have to end. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t want the world to think this is something more than it is.”

Dating Lily Potter was like greeting a hippogriff - something Lysander had done on only one occasion. One had to approach calmly and accept that at any point, for any reason, the wild creature was likely to attack- and just as likely to flee.

Then again, Sander wasn’t certain what he and Lily had could qualify as ‘dating’. They spent the next month in this balancing act, always teetering on the edge of a relationship. Lily was cautious about public displays of affection so Lysander did his best to follow her lead. However, she made her intentions clear when they were in the privacy of their homes.

He was certain after their first night together she’d felt their connection too. And he could sense the scales tipping the first morning he woke up to see her still beside him.

Another week in and Kit seemed to let every bludger pass by him on its way to Lysander. It would have made the seeker irate, if it wasn’t some small proof that he and Lily meant something to each other. 

_Sander?_

The ink on the parchment disappeared before it could even dry.

_We agreed to sign off with ‘farewell’ so I can only assume you’re not paying attention again._

Lysander caught the end of the sentence before it faded from the page. His brother’s assumption was correct. He tore his eyes away from Lily, still tangled in his duvet.

_Sorry!_

He let the quill hover at the end of the sentence as he hesitated to answer his brother’s question. The single word faded away in his hesitation and he was silently grateful their conversation was happening over enchanted parchment instead of in person. 

_No_

He finally wrote out, 

_Nothing too exciting on my end. Match went well._

Lorcan went on to detail an encounter he had at his work and how inconsiderate his peers had been. It was a perfectly normal interaction, but it made Lysander’s heart ache. Things shouldn’t have been normal. He found an incredible connection with the most amazing woman. He wanted to share his excitement with his brother, but he’d already heard enough about what a disaster they were destined for; by Lorcan and Scorpius. Neither believed Lily intended or was even capable of commitment and Sander wasn’t known for casual feelings.

He glanced over at her again, her figure silhouetted by sunlight streaming in through the trees. It impressed upon him what little good their warnings had done. He’d already memorized her and those details would always sit in the back of his mind. Like the way her freckles scattered over her nose. He could close his eyes and see his fingers tracing down her spine to the dimples on her back or replay the memory of that night on the pitch with the fireworks exploding above them.

But maybe his mates were right. Maybe she didn’t think of their time together the same way he did. Maybe it wasn’t even memorable to her at all. Maybe his choice to talk about acromantulas and the complexities of time-turners was why she kept him at arms’ length. Maybe she just kept everyone at arm’s length.

A mechanical snap caught his attention and he looked up to see Lily lowering her camera as the photograph she’d just taken punched out the bottom of the device.

“What are you fiddling with over here?”

Lily shook the printed paper back and forth as she moved to his side, staring down at the blank parchment he’d been hunched over. She picked it off the desk and turned to hold it up in the light; turning her head to the side as if a new perspective would reveal something. 

“Who are you talking with?”

He smirked at her cleverness and pulled her onto his lap, “You obviously” 

She laid the paper back on the desk with a mischievous smirk of her own, “It’s a lover then?”

“You know me,” he kissed her cheek softly, “I’ve barely the time to keep up with all the lovers I’ve collected.”

Her laugh was too casual and he suddenly felt his heart fall to the floor; maybe she thought he really was collecting lovers...maybe she’d been collecting a few of her own.

She showed him the photo she’d just taken: a perfect capture of the blank stare that accompanied his wandering mind. They both laughed as she laid it next to his quill and parchment as more ink appeared one letter at a time. 

_Honestly Sander if you’re not going to pay attention just say so._

“It’s strange to think there’s another human walking around with this face.” She tapped on the polaroid before tapping Lysander on the nose, “How often have you two switched out in something? You must’ve in school.”

“Oh I’ve passed for Lorcan loads of times. Nothing much to it apart from using big words.”

He pushed away from the desk, sending the chair spinning. Lily held on to him to keep from slipping away. 

“Would never work on me.” She laughed as they slowed to a stop. 

“Is that so?” 

She nodded her head accepting the challenge. “First off, his hair’s a bit longer than yours.”

Her hand brushed a few longer strands from his face, “and these eyes of yours are unmistakable.” 

He narrowed his gaze on her as if suspicious, which wasn’t just him playing coy. A part of him was curious how much she meant what she was saying.

“Then there’s this scar,” she ran her fingers under his shirt, to feel the healed skin over his lowest rib, “from when you decided to heal yourself after a collision last year.” 

Her touch sent electricity through him and he pressed his lips to hers, ending their teasing the only way he found acceptable. She returned his kiss with even more passion and they were lost in each other again. 

“Say you’ll go with me.” Sander asked between kisses, his confidence boosted.

“Not this again...” Lily responded quickly before continuing their embrace.

Sander pulled away from her, “Come on, go with me.” Her huff was all he needed to know he’d pushed her too far.

Like most of the wizarding social scene, they both attended the Ministry’s Winter Festival every year. This year, Sander simply proposed they go together. A suggestion that Lily adamantly opposed.

“Why don’t you ask one of those many lovers of yours instead?”

The fact that she’d risen to her feet and paced to the window betrayed her attempted smile.

“I don’t understand why you’re so against this.” 

“I don’t understand why you want to ruin this!” 

Lysander seemed to shrink back into his chair after her shout. It was always clear that a conversation like this one would be uncomfortable, but he hadn’t expected it to upset her. He wanted to back down, to shrug it off, pull her back to him and pretend like he hadn’t kicked the hoo-hoo’s nest - but more than that he wanted to understand her.

“What even is this?” He rose to meet her by the window where she was still pacing.

“It’s….it’s us…” She shook her head back and forth, realizing she wasn’t making any sense, “it’s good isn’t it?” 

Lysander couldn’t find words quick enough to keep up with her so instead he just smiled and nodded in agreement. 

“So we don’t need to bring anyone else into it.” She shrugged as if her logic had always been clear.

Sander reached out and took her hands in his, finding the courage to ask the question that haunted him earlier.

“Is there though?” Lily’s eyes fell to the floor and Lysander had to swallow hard to keep his own emotions in check, “Are you seeing other people...the way you see me?”

“No.” He wasn’t expecting her to answer so sharply. Then her eyes darted up to meet his, “Are you?”

He felt a weight lift off him when he shook his head back and forth, “No.”

They stood there for a moment, neither one seeming to know what was supposed to be said next. Finally, Lily pulled her hands from the seeker’s grip.

“Look, I’ll dance with you. I’ll drink with you - but it’s not like a pub or a quidditch party.” She started pacing again; something Sander was starting to understand as a nervous habit, “That festival is a big event with lots of press, best dressed lists, four page spreads on who brought who…” Suddenly she stopped pacing and crossed her arms in front of her chest, “I don’t want the world to think this is something more than it is.”

There she went again, backing away slowly. Every time he thought she’d let him in, she made sure to put her wall back up. It was as infuriating as Scorpius warned him it would be, but Sander refused to give in. He had learned to trust what Lily said when she was angry and shouting more than when she was calm and calculated.

“Well then…” He shrugged, choosing to mimic her own demeanor, “since this isn’t anything more...you wouldn’t mind if I went with someone else?”

He could see her real answer in the way her jaw tightened and arms adjusted uncomfortably, even though she responded with, “of course not.”

He took another step toward her, “It wouldn’t bother you seeing me show up with another woman on my arm? Watching me dance the whole night with her...to see me leave with her?”

“Not at all…I’m not planning to spend my evening stalking your every move, Scamander.”

Their eyes met like they had that first night in his flat. A new challenge hung between them and neither was going to back down.

“Suppose I’ll see you there, then.”

“Suppose you will.”

* * *

He could have paced a hole in the rug of the corridor while he waited for her to arrive that evening. They agreed to meet-up where Lysander now stood. At least he stood there for a moment before starting to pace again.

“Salut!”

His head shot up at the sound of her familiar accent. 

“Marsali! Ta!” 

Her hair was a new shade of blue, but he’d recognize the smile anywhere. His old teammate had chosen a navy dress to match her free flowing curls. It rested off her shoulders and flowed all the way to the floor with a slit where her leg poked through in an almost scandalous way. 

“What do you ‘sink?” She asked, doing a slow twirl and Lysander grinned from ear to ear at how beautifully confident she was, “eet will make them jealous?”

Sander shook his head back and forth as he reached out to take her hand, “You were supposed to talk me out of this...tell me it was bad form.” 

She greeted him with a kiss on both cheeks, “Oui. It is a bad idee’ for you because you have something to lose. Me? I have a room full of men to gain, no?” 

She whipped her dress around to emphasize her intentions and Sander shook his head again before starting toward the entrance. 

Marsali and Lysander had been friends for years. She was a chaser for the Arrows before being signed to the Holyhead Harpies last spring. 

After backing himself into a corner with Lily, he knew he couldn’t show up to the festival stag. There was only one person he was comfortable inviting along for his ruse. A part of him had hoped Marsali would talk him out of it; tell him how immature he was being and set him straight. Clearly, she had other plans. 

They could see the flashes of the photographers before rounding the corner, “They’re going to assume we’re a couple-”

“Then I must apologize now for leaving you for cher Malfoy, or maybe Callum Ford.” she winked with a reassuring smile to encourage him that she could handle whatever the papers wanted to print, “I am not difficile, I will take anyone wis a trust fund.”

They made their way through the torrent of press, posing poshly, but not answering any of their questions. After passing the excited guests at the entrance, they took shelter at the other side of the grand ballroom, laughing at the absurd things they were asked and the faces they were sure they made while trying to look poised in their photos. 

Then, before either even finished a proper drink one of their favorite songs was played and they were throwing shapes on the dancefloor. It could have been an amazing night out with an old and dear friend, had Sander been able to ignore a certain Potter.

There must’ve been a hundred people bustling about the hall, but he could always spot Lily. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that bounced with each step. The dress she’d chosen was a vibrant yellow that hung off her shoulders and ruffled down to her thighs. Even without the canary dress she was easy to spot; she simply had a way of owning a room. Lily’s eyes darted to the floor the moment she’d caught his gaze.

“I’m so sorry Marsali, this was a rubbish thing to ask of you...”

“Why do you say this? Je m’amuse!” she spun herself around and grinned from ear to ear, as if to act out what a good time she was having. Then she pulled herself close to him, so that her cheek pressed against his, “and it is working, no?”

Lysander stole another glance of his redhead and saw something he hadn’t expected in Lily’s eyes: hurt.

It was fleeting, only there for a moment before she turned back to her conversation and faked a smile and a laugh, but it was unmistakable.

Why hadn’t he expected to see that? That was the point after all wasn’t it? To make her jealous? To prove to her that she felt something for him? To present her with the possibility of losing him so that she’d want to hold on to him?

What a ridiculous plan. What a childish way to reason. 

“How wonderful to see you wis out mud all over. Now I can see what all zees girls have been shouting about all this time.”

Marsali’s flirting wasn’t enough to pull him out of the whirlwind of thoughts his mind was spinning, but the voice that responded did the trick.

“I’d be flattered if my pride wasn’t still bruised. You know, you could’ve told me the Harpy’s made you an offer when I made mine.”

“You never told me the Cannon’s tried to sign you.” Sander jumped into Scorpius and Marsali’s conversation. 

“It was an easy choice.” She shrugged and handed her drink to Sander, “The league does not like teammates to be lovers, suivez-vous?”

She straightened Scorpius’ tie before taking him by the hand and dragging him out onto the dancefloor. Sander was glad to see Scorpius return her smirk. It helped ease the guilt he was feeling having dragged Marsali into his drama, but it did nothing to ease his newfound tension.

“It’s always nice to see you’ve taken my advice.”

Lorcan greeted his brother in a one armed hug before they turned back to Marsali and Scorpius spinning around the ballroom.

“She’s just a friend, I didn’t want to-”

“I’m not talking about Marsali.”

Lily laughed with a brunette near the window before peeking over the woman’s shoulder to catch Sander’s eyes again.

Lorcan adjusted his glasses before sticking both of his hands in his pockets calmly. 

“Look, I’m not father...I’m not going to dictate which animals you can and cannot tug the tails of. Figure out for yourself which ones will spit fire at you for it.” Lysander smiled at the reference to a very memorable holiday they once took to Hungary, “Actually, I’m a little perplexed that you’ve not been at her side this whole evening.”

“It’s...it’s complicated…” Sander sighed, only adding to the anger he was already feeling toward himself, “I need some air…”

He tugged at his tie and headed for the back door as the staleness of the air seemed to close in around him. What was he thinking? What was he doing here with Marsali? Why hadn’t he just told Lily plainly that he didn’t want anyone else? Why - when she’d made him so furious did she still manage to make his heart race? 

He made it out of the ballroom and around a corner when he heard someone shout his name. When he turned to see who it was, he was greeted with a kiss. The music faintly echoed down the corridor while Lily’s fingers knotted in his jacket and pulled him even closer to her.

They were lost in one another like they always were when they were alone. His hands searched her body feverishly while she kissed at his ear knowing it was ticklish. She giggled with satisfaction when it made him shiver and they spun around and around until nestling into a corner behind an elaborate statue of a wizard levitating loose pages. 

“Wait..” Sander managed to get out between kisses, “Wait...stop.” He pulled away and backed into the statue to put at least a foot of distance between them. 

“I’m sorry, Lily. I shouldn’t have come here with Marsali...we’re just mates ya know? I just wanted to- ”

Her hand reached out and intertwined their fingers, “You wanted to make me jealous...” She closed the distance between them so smoothly Sander had barely processed they were nose to nose again, “And it worked- so will you shut up and snog me?”

And again they were lost in one another and all of Lysander’s doubts, confusion, and anger was pushed to the back of his mind. All he could think about was the taste of her lips and the feeling of his fingers tangled in her hair. 

They spun again and again until they spun straight into Rose Weasley. 

“Oi!” Lily shouted trying to stifle her laughter, “put a bell ‘round your neck or something. Creeping up on people like that.”

Lysander quickly made an effort to brush the lipstick off of his cheek (which didn’t work). What he remembered about Rose from childhood reminded him of Lily, but the unamused look on her face suggested she might’ve changed since then. Her beau put an arm around her waist, but it didn’t seem to settle her at all.

“You must be Lily.” The stranger guessed, extending his hand for her to shake. Lily accepted it, but also took Lysander’s at her side in silent protest, “Anders Creevy.” Lily dropped his hand, but he left it out for Lysander to shake “And you are?”

Before Lysander could answer Rose pulled her boyfriend away, “the newest on a long list of lovers and fools.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What she had with Wood had been toxic and painful, but it wasn’t dangerous. Swaying back and forth with Lysander was the real danger. Letting herself get attached to someone who could leave again was the real threat.

Lily felt Lysander squeeze her hand in a silent way of telling her he wasn’t going to be scared away and she was reminded why she’d been falling for him all this time. 

“Such a shame you’re arriving late, Rosie. You’ll’ve just missed your husband.”

She smiled sweetly, daring her cousin to correct her word choice. They both knew Rose hadn’t made any effort to correct the error. 

“Lysander.” It was her lover’s turn to extend his hand, trying to mitigate the women’s tension, “Scamander.” He continued into the silence.

“Yes!” Anders shook his hand with more enthusiasm as he connected the names in his head, “Seeker for the Cannons! You made a great catch against the Harpies last week, mate.”

“Oh yeah that’s right,” Rose interjected dryly, “didn’t I see you arrive with one of their chasers this evening?”

Lysander opened his mouth to answer, but Lily was quicker, “You know quite a bit about chasers don’t you?”

Lily smirked at Rose’s clear irritation. She looked Anders up and down, struck by how drastically he contrasted Scorpius. His hair was a dark shade of copper and was cut very short. Where Malfoy towered over most, Anders seemed to meet Lily’s eyeline - and he wasn’t taking the bait.

“Love, we’re late as it is,” Anders kissed her cheek and whispered something else into her ear that made her shoulders ease for a moment. 

“It was lovely meeting you both.” He smiled brightly before letting Rose lead him away. Lily added ‘expressive and polite’ to the list of opposites as she watched them grow smaller in the distance. 

She continued watching them even after they’d long left her view because the alternative was to turn back to a Sander who would want to carry on their earlier conversation. 

“We’re not going to talk about this anymore are we?”

No. They weren’t. Lily didn’t need to discuss the way her stomach twisted seeing Marsali whispering into her lover’s ear. She didn’t need to be reminded of the comments her peers made about what a great couple the pair made or how tight her chest got when she thought about his lips kissing anyone other than her. 

“You’re infuriating, you know that?” 

“Is that so?” Lily spun around to face Lysander, pushing against his hands like she was playing pat-a-cake with her niece, “because your smile would suggest otherwise.”

His grin wavered for a moment and he gripped onto Lily’s hands to keep them from fleeing in the same rhythmic way she had been.

“I can’t seem to avoid it around you...that’s what’s so frustrating…”

She could see in his eyes he had more to say, but instead of pushing her any further, Lysander held out his hand to finally ask for a dance. She accepted and they swayed slowly to the distant music. 

Occasionally Lily would peek up at his olive green eyes and each time her stomach did a somersault. And with every somersault came the urge to run.

Lily hated that side of her. The scared, walled off side that refused to admit her feelings. That wouldn’t let him apologize for hurting her because that would mean that he’d been able to hurt her. The part Kit said wanted danger, but was dead wrong. What she had with Wood had been toxic and painful, but it wasn’t dangerous. Swaying back and forth with Lysander was the real danger. Letting herself get attached to someone who could leave again was the real threat. 

Her eyes traced over his details again. The way the corners of his mouth turned up in an ever present smile and how the cowlick on the side of his head fought against the direction of the rest of it. 

“I hate when you look at me like that...”

Her eyes darted to his, horrified that she’d let her guard down, “How am I looking at you?” 

He smiled sweetly to assure her he wasn’t a threat. Their swaying slowed to a stop and he ran his thumb over her lips the same way he had the first night she woke up in his bed. 

“Sometimes you look at me like you’re trying to burn me into memory. Like you’re taking a photo without your camera.”

His touch sent a shiver down her back, “Is there something wrong with wanting to remember you?”

He rested both of his hands on her hips before touching his forehead to hers, “Well it’s just, you’ve only got to remember people if they aren’t in your life anymore and I know if we do this-if we were to be an us...I know at some point you’re going to need out, but watching me like that just makes it real...”

Lily’s gut reaction wanted to shove the boy away and tell him that he didn’t know anything about her - and even less about her motives. Her emotions wanted to shove him back into the arms of Marsali Page and wish them luck on their journey because it didn’t matter to her, but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to move. 

Scorpius was in the back of her mind, warning her about leading Lysander on. And she thought of what Scorpius must be feeling, seeing his ex-wife walking into the ballroom with a new love on her arm. What Rose must’ve been going through, seeing him, knowing there was still a chance for them if she’d just reach out and take it - but she wouldn’t.

Lily didn’t want to be Rose; so afraid of getting hurt she didn’t go after what she really wanted; and Lily wanted Lysander. She liked waking up next to him and falling asleep in his arms. She liked spinning around corridors. She liked that she made him erratic and that he made her feel safe. 

“Brief as lightning, right?” she asked, both of her hands knotted in his shirt, “I don’t know...maybe it doesn’t have to be.”

She crashed into him again, wanting him to feel the truth in her kiss - just as the camera flashes started to erupt around them. 

“Ms. Potter?! How long has this affair been going on?!”

“Scamander! You arrived with Ms. Page, is she prepared for the heartbreak of this revelation?!”

“Ms. Potter! Over here!” 

“Mr. Scamander! Look this way!”

The press, no doubt sent down this corridor by her vengeful cousin, were closing in around them and Lily could feel the color drain from her face. Before she could tear into the reporters, she felt a hand tug her down the corridor.

Lysander was hurrying them around the corner, but the quick-quote pens followed after them. They rounded a second corner and Sander paused in front of a door before finally twisting the handle and hurrying them both inside.

“A closet?” Lily couldn’t help but laugh, “Of all the conference rooms and offices in this building, you shove us into a supply closet?”

Sander shushed her and his hand covered her mouth as thirty footsteps thundered down the hall on the other side of the door. 

“Sorry…” Lysander whispered as he removed his hand, his voice unsteady.

His breath tickled her ear as they huddled together amongst the brooms and stacks of parchment. They waited there in the dark, lingering in the tension of being so close yet still distant. 

“You’re not.” Lily inhaled deeply, “What Rose said...I mean admittedly it is a long list, but you’re not just the next guy tacked onto it...” 

**  
  
**

* * *

“Go on then! What’d he say?!” 

Charlotte Potter was nearly sitting on the edge of her seat. Lily had gotten so lost in her own storytelling that she nearly forgot she had an audience. Her sister-in-law was grinning from ear to ear as she waited to hear more. 

“Well he didn’t exactly respond with words…” 

Charlotte’s cheeks flushed lightly at the insinuation, “LP! In a supply closet?!”

Lily shrugged and took a sip of her drink, unembarrassed by the physical side of her relationship.

“No wonder you wouldn’t tell me the full story during Christmas, but...why didn’t I see him around over the holidays?”

“Well I wasn’t going to have him over for Christmas dinner was I? What with my family being what it is and Rose deciding to make an appearance - which couldn’t have been worse timing after everything with Scorp and his father.”

“How is our Scorpius?” Charlotte had to raise her voice a bit to be heard over the loud music of the club, “Albus mentioned some broken furniture?”

Lily let out a deep sigh before recounting what she knew. 

“And he put a hole in the wall. Still hasn’t set any of it right either...I’m not sure he will.” Lily started picking at a water stain on the table, “I think he started frustrated at his father’s diagnosis, but…Rose coming to the festival didn't help…”

Charlotte seemed to sink a bit at the thought of someone hurting. She never really got to know Rose, she and Albus got married so quickly and Rose left right after their wedding. In a way she never really got to know Scorpius either. Not the put together version of him anyways.

“Well, maybe he’s finally free of her.” 

Her sister-in-law said hopefully before taking a drink, but Lily knew from her own experiences, “He’ll never be free of her.” 

Her stomach did a backflip at the memory of finding the denied divorce decree. Scorpius would love Rose until his dying day. If she came home today and told him about the error and said she didn’t want to fix it - that they made a mistake and should be together - Lily was convinced Scorpius wouldn’t hesitate to agree. 

But, Rose had known about the error for months now and hadn’t made any declarations. She did come home for Christmas, which was new, but with a man already on her arm. 

“Well if it isn’t one half of the wizarding world’s hottest couple!”

Albus sat a copy of Witch Weekly on the table before kissing his wife on the cheek and sliding into the booth.

“I don’t understand this,” Lily practically slapped the magazine, “You two are bringing another life into this world - that’s gotta be a bigger story.”

“Oh it definitely is,” Albus agreed whole-heartedly, but then flipped the magazine over to reveal its cover, “but when you kiss someone like that you’re begging for the front page.”

There they were, Lysander dipping Lily back in a passionate kiss after the Cannon’s latest victory. For a moment Lily smiled at the memory, but then the moment played over again and she remembered this was now fodder for the magical community.

“Can’t I count on you for anything? Come on, one rumor that you’re having twins would give Sander and I a month of peace.”

She flipped the paper over so she didn’t have to watch her private moment replay publicly over and over again. 

“You gonna be with ‘Sander for another month, then? What would that be three? Four even! This is getting serious…”

“It’s not been that long...” Lily tried to walk-back her own statement, but realized he was right. “We’re happy, okay. You’re going to tease me for being happy?” She asked to hide her sudden apprehension.

“So happy that you hid him away all Christmas?” 

He pushed again, so she sat up a little straighter, 

“What was the name of the girl you brought home the first year after Hogwarts? Sonia? Summer?” Lily knew the girl’s name was actually Sawyer, but that wasn’t the point, “How long into dinner did she make it before James had her crying at the thought of losing you during your Auror training?” She turned to Charlotte now, “He had her convinced Albus wouldn’t make it through unless their relationship was stable. So she had to be fully committed or his death was blood on her hands.” 

Lily leaned back in the booth again, feeling victorious. Her brother stuck his tongue out and cast expelliarmus non-verbally so her wand erupted from her bag on the floor and scattered the rest of her contents. 

“Very mature, darling.”

Charlotte chastised before helping collect everything that had flown about their corner. Albus too helped clean up the mess he made, after feeling guilted by his wife. Lily really didn’t mind it, she knew she’d won the verbal sparring and that was satisfying. 

“What did we miss over here?” 

Lysander asked, bending down to help the ladies pick up the last of the belongings.

Scorpius greeted Albus with a one-handed hug and kissed Charlotte on the cheek before sliding into the booth, “What’s with the cameras out front? They’ve multiplied this year.”

Lily rolled her eyes as they all piled back into their seats.

“They’re werewolves...ravenous and insatiable werewolves...”

“I think it’s sweet. Everyone’s rooting for the two of you.” Charlotte tried to put a positive spin on the invasion of privacy.

“They’d sell more papers if it all fell apart…” Scorpius took a drink, ignoring the way all of his friends stared at him.

“Well, on that cheerful note, I’m going to ask my wife for a dance.” Albus extended his hand and Charlotte followed him to the dance floor. 

“Another round?” Lysander asked seeing that everyone was nearing the bottom of their pints. Lily and Scorpius nodded so he made his way to the counter.

Lily didn’t think much of the way he kissed her cheek before leaving, but judging Scorpius’ expression there must’ve been something odd about it.

“I see it now…”

Lily shook her head so her bangs fell in front of her eyes to hide them from his view. 

“See what?”

“The two of you. It didn’t make any sense before, but I see it now,” He finished his pint and looked regretfully at the bottom of his glass, “you’re good together, temper one another.”

Lily brushed her hair back behind her ear, “What do you mean?” 

Her mind started racing with what he must’ve meant by his comment. Was she different around Lysander? 

“I could always count on you to be miserably cynical with me, but now…” He paused for a moment finding his words, “I think he’s mended your heart a bit.”

He smirked as only a Malfoy could and Lily returned the smile. 

Lysander returned with more alcohol and the night’s revelries continued; dancing, laughing, drinking and joking with the invincibility that came with youth. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’ve thought many things of you since capturing my brother’s attention...but I’ve never thought you a coward.”

“Werewolves are actually a tragically misunderstood species. Sure most are hostile in their wolf state, but they can be the warmest humans.”

Lily petted the cowlick in the back of Lysanders hair that kept trying to force its own direction as he countered her insult of the press. It was still an accurate comparison in her eyes. They waited outside of every pub, at the fence of each home they visited, and were always chomping at the bit at the end of a quidditch match. 

“We could apparate. Avoid them all together.”

“You know there’s no apparition on the Cannon grounds.” He threw her scarf over her shoulder and tugged down on her knit cap so it covered her eyes, “There. Now you’re unrecognizable. Could walk around Piccadilly if you wanted.”

She was smiling behind her scarf before even realizing it. Then, her mind started racing about how quick she was to give up her anger around his grin. Is that what Scorpius meant the other night?

“How bout this,” Sander bent down for Lily to climb on his back, “You wrap the scarf around both of us and we convince them I’ve just really let myself go.” 

Lily shook her doubts away with another smile. Her arms wrapped around Lysander’s neck before he rose back to his full height, tucking his arms under her thighs to hold her in place. 

She gave him a gentle kick as if he were a dragon being commanded to take-off and he nearly doubled over, dropping her to her own feet again. 

“Oi! Whoa! What’s happened?! I didn’t kick you that hard!” Lily’s emotions rocketed from guilt to self-protection and then to concern in rapid succession.

“It’s fine! It’s nothing, it’s just-” He grabbed at his side, “Potion’s worn off is all. I have another at the flat that’ll get me through the night,” He stumbled a couple steps before finding his footing again and pushing forward, “Lorcan will be round in the morning to mend me proper.” 

“Mend you proper? What’s that supposed to mean, Lysander? You can barely put a foot in front of the other!” Lily threw his arm over her shoulder to help him sit on a nearby bench, “I don’t understand- there wasn’t a bludger that came close to you the whole match...”

She got a glimpse of purple and blue when trying to inspect his abdomen, but he waved her off and tried to stand again, mumbling to himself, “Course not, there’s scouts at matches…”

Lily held his shoulder to the bench to stop him, “You risked playing injured so the World Cup scouts would add you to the English roster next year?”

Sander let out a heavy sigh, clearly annoyed that they were still talking about this, “I played injured because I got hit at practice and we had a match before I could get it seen to. It has nothing to do with-”

“You’re the one who brought them up I’m just trying to understa-” Lily stopped mid-sentence as it all came together in her mind, “Kit.”

“I should’ve been paying better attention I could’v-”

“Kit let a bludger take a cheap shot at you...I’m gonna-” She shot to her feet to give the beater a beating of his own, but Sander grabbed her hand to hold her back. “This isn’t okay Sander! It’s his job to have your back out there! If Scorpius-”

“Scorp has enough going on.” He undercut her next argument before she could even finish it.

Of course he was thinking of someone else and of course he had a valid point. Scorpius’ ex-wife was in a blissful new relationship and now his father was slowly fading away. 

The Gryffindor pushed himself up onto his feet, “Look, I’m fine. Honest. I’ve been in worse shape than this.” 

Swallowing her protests, she wrapped Lysander’s arm around her shoulder and they made their way through the wolves' den.

Lily wasn’t sure how to feel about how well Lysander played off his injury. He hid his pain incredibly well; if she hadn’t been supporting part of his steps she might’ve been convinced of his smiles too. 

After getting home, the tonic worked just as promised. Lysander wasn’t doing cartwheels, but he wasn’t grimacing with every step either, which made cooking dinner easier. 

It was always easy to fall into a rhythm with her seeker. To forget about what happened the hour before or what stresser was awaiting her in the morning and just get lost in the music he always insisted they turn on or the stories he never ran out of.

Scorpius came round to eat supper with them and Sander convinced him to go out for a drink. Lily was too much in her mind to enjoy a night out so she told them to go without her. Instead she did the dishes, studied for a while and then laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, over-thinking.

She thought about Lysander smiling to the cameras, holding back his true feelings and wondered how often he grinned at her in the same way. Then her mind raced with all the times she’d overlooked Kit’s lies. Saying he was going out with friends, neglecting to mention those friends were women and he planned to shag them. 

_Lysander isn’t Kit._ She had to repeat that three times to shake the uneasiness in her gut. He’s out with Scorpius - why would either of them lie about that? Scorpius was going through enough he didn’t deserve her doubts thrown in. 

Then her mind wandered to an earlier thought, that Charlotte had only met Scorpius after his ordeal with Rose. The same could be said for her and Sander; he really only knew the Lily after Wood. Sure they knew each other in school, but she’d changed leaps and bounds since then. He seemed unaltered; The same daydreaming, romantic, smiley boy she once sat behind in Astronomy lectures. 

Her eyes searched the room like they had that first morning she’d woken up in his bed, but so much had changed in that short time. Her make-up littered the top of his dresser. Nail polish she’d forgotten about was sitting on his stack of vinyl records in the corner. She finished her thesis before the holidays and left her law books scattered about his desk. Photos were now stuck into the edges of his mirror. 

Lily had always loved taking photographs. She was enamored with the idea of capturing a moment. Stopping time. Allowing yourself to travel back to that moment without ever leaving the one you were in now; being in two places at once. 

She moved closer to the mirror and inspected the different moments captured over the months. In one, Lily and Charlotte were dancing on top of the coffee table, sunglasses and knit caps on even though they were inside, both wrapped in christmas lights.

Another was blurry due to the chase scene they were in the midst of when she’d taken it. All one could make out of Lysander was his ear, but Lily knew he was smiling. His arm was stretched behind him, holding tightly onto her hand as he led her into an alley, trying to lose the press mob that’d been waiting for them outside of a Weird Sisters concert. 

Three different photographs were stacked on top of eachother in a sequence, each one featured a different goofy face from Lysander, sat next to Scorpius with the same cross expression in each. At the bottom of the mirror was the first photo she took of him while she was hanging halfway out his window, his smile as bright and warm as ever.

She peeked around the room again and rested on a framed photo of Lysander and his brother Lorcan. This photo was different from the others. First of all, it moved. Playing over and over the brothers raising their pints and swaying back and forth, singing along to an unheard melody. Secondly, it had two Scamanders in it. Lily hadn’t realized until that moment how little she’d seen Lorcan over the months she’d spent with his brother. 

Suddenly she tore into the desk looking for her purse she’d put an extension charm on. Once she found it, she took her arm and swept all of her beauty products from the dresser. She threw her books in next, and then opened the top drawer to start packing her clothes.

“Should I open the window? Or have you kicked the habit?”

Her heart dropped to her stomach as she slammed the drawer shut as if it’d somehow hide her intentions. His shadow seemed to loom over her as she took a moment to collect herself. 

Finally she peered up at the shadow. His hair was matted to one side and his eyes seemed a darker shade of green in the moonlight. 

“I’m going to head back to London for a bit…” She opened the next drawer to continue clearing her things. 

“You make all of your travel decisions at three in the morning?” He asked through a drowsy yawn.

Lily pushed passed him toward the living room to collect her wand, knowing it was too late to turn back now. 

“You’re not coming back then?”

She tried to ignore the new intensity in his voice. 

“This is what’s best, Sander.” Her own voice cracked saying his name, so she continued to wander the living room even though she knew there wasn’t anything left to collect. 

“You mean this is what’s best for you.”

His tone cut through her. It reminded her too much of Scorpius. Calm, collected, but direct and intentional. It was exactly what she needed to hear to know she was making the right choice.   
  


The Sander she’d met all those months ago wouldn’t have thrown her words back in her face. He wouldn’t have watched her collect her things like a stranger barging in and rearranging his room. 

“Look, I’m sorry, but I can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what? Packing? You seem to have a handle on it...”

She threw her bag to the floor having exhausted all of her patience. His temperament was only making it clearer that she’d already overstayed her welcome in this relationship. Every time she expected her anger to be countered with gentleness, it was instead matched with contempt and sarcasm. 

However it only took one look in his direction to remember she wasn’t angry with him at all, she was mad at herself for changing him.

“Quick bright things, right?” 

“Do you hear yourself right now?”

“Do you hear _yourself_?!” She shouted back at his postured stance. “The way you’re talking to me right now? That you took a bludger to the ribs and won’t tell your captain about it. Does that sound like you? And the winter festival? Shagging me in one room while your date waited for you in another? Is that the person you were before I barged into your life?!”

He shifted uncomfortably, which brought her some comfort. Maybe he was finally listening.

“You’ve not seen your brother for nearly a month, Sander, and I can’t think of the last time you went out with your own friends...You’ve given things up to be with me.”

“And it’s all about you isn’t it?”

A bludger could’ve just smashed into her ribs after that comment.

“Did it ever cross your mind that this is the first year on a new team? In a new city? New friends are a part of assimilating.”

She was fighting back tears, watching his foreign expression, trying to rationalize him using a word like _assimilating._

“And Marsali? Yeah I remember her being so devastated that she left with Callum Ford - who she’s still with by the way! See I know that because they still keep in touch, much like my brother and I.”

Lily met his eyes again and noticed they were still a darker shade of olive than she remembered. Worse than that, they weren’t the honest eyes she’d grown so comfortable with - these eyes were as guarded as hers. 

“But you can’t imagine someone having a life outside of you, can ya? No, you’re so incredibly vain that you couldn’t even be bothered to notice you’ve been breaking up with the wrong person!”

Lily had almost never felt so foolish. She’d been scolding the wrong twin. She wiped tears away and flipped her hair over one shoulder trying to regain composure. Her confidence steadied a bit, knowing these were the words of a protective brother and not the man she’d been with for months, but the truth in them still stung.

Picking nervously at the bottom of her shirt she finally spoke again, “Lorcan...I-”

“It’s fine...” He let out a deep sigh, accepting her unsaid apology and pulling off his jacket. A jacket which, now that she was paying attention, was too expensive to be in Lysnader’s taste. He started to go through the cabinets in the kitchen, “Cuppa?” He asked, finally finding where Sander kept his mugs.

She shouldn’t stay. Every moment she lingered was another minute closer to having to face the real Lysander.

“He said you’d be round in the morning...I didn’t expect-”

“What? Now you’re the only one allowed to travel under the cover of darkness?” The smirk wasn’t a smile Lysander would wear and Lily felt stupid all over again for not realizing sooner.

“I came once I got his owl. He told me not to worry or rush over, but he’s healed enough scrapes and bruises on his own that, to send for me, I knew he must’ve been in poor shape...bludger to the ribs, eh?”

“I’m fairly certain he’s broken one...” 

Lily sat at the table and noticed the glasses he usually had on were sticking out of his bag before watching him move around the kitchen, surprised at what her mind now noticed. 

For instance, she saw that Lorcan held his shoulders straighter than his brother. That he stood by the stove with his arms across his chest, while his brother would’ve leaned on the counter. 

The fact that he was behaving so calmly after just having a row reminded her again of Scorpius and she wondered if their similarities were why Scorp and Lysander got on so well.

The kettle started to shriek so he took it from the stove and poured into their mugs.

“I suppose you were right about one thing during your soliloquy,” she noticed again that his jaw was more square than his brothers, which is probably what made him seem more serious - well that and his frankness, “I’m not thrilled with your relationship...and maybe that has led me to keep my distance...but my brother’s not some little crup just following you around you know? He’s not as naive as he plays at.”

“I know that...but he thinks the world of me and I’m just going to hurt him.” 

“Why do you keep saying that as if leaving is going to help somehow?” Lorcan was back to his earlier tone of unbelief, “Leaving is going to hurt him. Sorry, love, but you’re too late to save him from anything. Besides, my brother won a quidditch match this afternoon with a broken rib- he can take a hit.” His fingers tapped a familiar melody on the table as he seemed to debate if he should continue or not, “No you’ve accepted breaking his heart as collateral damage cause what you’re truly afraid of is giving him the chance to hurt you.”

Lily felt suddenly glued to her chair, as if she’d been moving around in the dark and a torch had just been shone on her. The two of them stared at one another, each waiting for the other to blink.

“Which is curious. Because I’ve thought many things of you since capturing my brother’s attention...but I’ve never thought you a coward.”

Their staring match continued until the front door opened and Lorcan’s reflection barreled through.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But then she saw him. And she had to start the process all over again.

Lysander stumbled into the front room and shushed the stoic man behind him who hadn’t made any noise. 

“Shhhh! Lily’s sleeping in the-Lorcan?!” He undercut his own warning by shouting excitedly at his brother.

Lily felt the weight of Lorcan’s accusation still holding her in place as Lysander used the couch to steady himself.

Scorpius leaned their brooms against the wall as Lorcan rose to his feet, “You were flying? He’s a broken rib and pissed drunk and still you thought it prudent to be six stories in the air?!”

“I’m fine, mate.” Lysander responded before sitting in the chair next to Lily. He rested his head on his hand and smiled over at her with a wink. 

“His feet never left the ground. Once I realized how legless he’d gotten I took his broom off him.”

Lily looked from one brother to the other. She once teased that it’d be an easy thing to spot their differences, that their physical features gave the game away - but it had nothing to do with their appearance. Lorcan carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, while Lysander floated where the wind blew him. 

It was childish to think she could leave now and forget him like she’d forgotten all the others. That he could be another on her list of could’ve beens and what ifs. No, Lysander would be forever etched into her life, like initials carved into a tree.

“Cuppa, Scorpius?” Lorcan asked, breaking the silence Lily hadn’t realized they were sitting in. 

“Ta.” He started, “but I’m to be in London in a couple hours so I should be off.”

Lysander’s chipper mood seemed to sober up for a moment, sending his friend off with a simple nod. Lily had been so grateful Scorpius found another mate to confide in. She’d thought Sander was exactly what Scorp needed; someone to pull him out of his melancholy brooding and do something silly and unproductive. It wasn’t until that night she’d had the clarity to see that he’d been doing the same for her.

“What’ve you two been talking about?” 

Lysander reached for Lorcan’s tea, but his brother swatted him away as he sat back down.   
  


Disgruntled, Lysander stood to find himself a cup.

Lorcan gave her a look, clearly wanting her to be the one who answered the question and she opened her mouth, but the words caught in her throat.

“Shakespeare.” Lorcan answered for her and Lily looked down at the table to avoid his judgemental expression.

Sander was struggling to reach whatever he was after on the top shelf and nearly knocked everything out of the cabinet before Lily jumped to catch him. 

“I’m good. All good.” Lysander chuckled after she’d gotten him back on two balanced feet. “You’re exceptionally pretty tonight - has anyone told you that yet?” He asked before kissing her cheek.

Lorcan cleared his throat, “Suppose I’ll get settled in. We can see to your pain when you’ve sobered a bit.”

Lysander waved him off, “I told you not to -” Lorcan had already rounded the corner to the guest room so Sander turned back to Lily, “I told him not to rush over here, but he never listens to me...”

Lily pulled herself up to sit on the counter across from him, trying to find her earlier boldness.

“Yeah, well...he knows you too well.”

“I know _you_ too well…” 

His nose grazed past hers, lingering there for a moment before closing the space between them and melting his lips into hers. 

He wasn’t making any sense, but she blamed that on the fact that, “you’re drunk Sander.” 

Lysander licked his lips to see if he could still taste the liquor and laughed when it was true. “A little, yeah.” Their noses grazed each other once more as he hovered just out of her lip’s reach, “I realized something tonight.”

“Not to mix potions and cheap whiskey?”

He laughed again before kissing up her neck, “I’m in love with you Lily Potter.” 

She forgot to take a breath. 

She forgot how to turn a thought into a word. 

All she could think to do was pull him close to her again and tangle her fingers in his shirt while he tangled his in her hair. Instead of trying to organize her thoughts her mind could focus on his skin against hers. She wanted to stay in that kiss forever. To live in the happiness of that moment like a photograph that would never change. 

But her stomach did a somersault as he whispered his affections into her ear again and she felt her heart ripping at the fragile seams with which she’d sewn it back together. And she tried to conjure the words herself. She tried to let go of the fear; told herself to let down her walls. 

“I’m so sorry.” She jumped from the counter and tried to push passed him, echoes and camera flashes and smiles and tears crowding her mind all at once. 

“Hey, Lily - wait.” He reached for her arm to stop her, but she moved away from his touch, “Will you just talk to me? Please?”

He let his hand fall back to his side, his mood starting to sober. “Is that really the worst thing you’ve ever heard?”

She desperately tried to find the words. Anything to help him understand the inevitability of their end, but he’d always refused to see it. Why would he say such a reckless thing?

“I told you I’m not good at this!” She nearly exploded. “You didn’t want to believe me. You wanted to paint rainbows over my mess instead of accepting it - but I’m not going to be that person for you.”

“What person?”

“That person.” She slapped the counter, “The one who breaks your heart. Who screws you up so bad that there’s suddenly two versions of you.” She escaped a few steps away, “That person that when you meet new people you realize they’re not meeting the before you anymore; the you without three tons of baggage. They’re only going to know the after.”

“You’ve made your mind up then?” He asked calmly and she wiped her tears away before nodding slowly. “Suppose this is best...” He reached back for the counter to support him, his injury starting to overcome the magic and liquor, “...get all the pain out at once.”

* * *

Lily tried to do her work that next week, but she found herself simply staring at the paperwork in front of her. The words were just letters scattered about the page, they didn’t seem to have any meaning to her though she’d read them three times. 

“Potter?”

“Hmmm? Yeah? Yes.” She tapped the papers on the desk to straighten them and then closed the file folder to talk with whoever it was that was attempting to get her attention.

“Geesh LP, I was waving my hands about and everything. You were deep in it.” Freddie re-enacted his attention getting methods, which gave Lily the chance to try and collect her composure a bit more.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” She tucked a curl behind her ear, “Did you need something?”

“I’ve been sent to collect a stack of liaison filings.”

Lily nodded, remembering her boss mentioning the request earlier that morning. She moved the different colored folders on her desk searching for the ones he needed.

“Here we are.” She tugged them out from under a book of case law. 

“Thanks.” He smiled kindly before noticing something else on her desk and drawing Lily’s attention to the polaroids that were sticking out the top of the law book, “Is that Jamey?”

Lily nodded with a melancholy grin as she pulled the photos from the book and held them out for Freddie to look through. The first one was James passed out on a sofa from when he was still living in London. Another was of a group of blurry figures dancing in her flat from who knows which party. Then there was one with Lily actually in it, her arms wrapped tightly around her brother. James had taken his tux jacket off by that point of the wedding celebrations and Lily had given up on her hair and done it up in a bun. Rose had taken that picture. 

“How’d that go by the way?”

“I don’t know. Who? What?” she asked flustered, petrified that he’d somehow heard her thoughts. 

“The thing you saw that you weren’t supposed to see, but you can’t unsee...it all turn out okay?”

Lily laughed to herself, “it’s still playing out actually. I don’t know. I’ve done my part, I passed it along.” Freddie handed her back the photos and she flipped through them again. Confused by her own smile staring back at her. 

James and Logan’s wedding had been a sight to behold. Colorful and bright and loud and so full of love. It was couples like James and Logan that made her believe love was real. You just knew it had to exist when you saw the way they looked at each other that day - but just because something is real doesn’t mean everyone finds it. After all, Scorpius and Rose used to look at each other that same way. 

“You good, LP?”

“Huh? Yeah, no, I’m good. Tired is all. Lots of studying.”

Freddie clearly didn’t believe her, but he also wasn’t going to push her on it. He thanked her for the files and turned to leave when Lily called after him, 

“Hey Royce.” He turned back around, but Lily hesitated, trying to figure out why she’d stopped him from leaving. “Thank you.” She gave him a half-smile, “for before I mean. It was good advice.”

“Do you maybe need some more?”

She huffed before sinking down into her chair. Where to even begin.

“Have you ever been in love?”

“You know I’m married, right?”

Lily shrugged to say that his fact was irrelevant. There were plenty of people who were married to people they didn’t love. There were plenty of people in love who never got married. He tapped the stack of folders on the desk before sitting in the cushioned chair across from Lily’s desk.

“Yeah, LP. I’ve been in love a couple of times...and you? Reckon it’s that seeker you’ve been snoggin’ all over the papers.”

Lily winced a bit at the mere suggestion of Lysander and immediately regretted bringing the topic up at all. 

“No.” She started to chew at her thumbnail, “maybe…” continuing between bites, “it’s just...how do you know? Listening to the way all of you talk it’s like...like you just sorta woke up one day in love.”

“Sorta was that way when I think back. Didn’t happen quick like that, but yeah, after a while I sorta just realized it.”

That phrase sent her back to Lysander in the kitchen and the certainty with which he spoke his feelings. 

“But how? I mean, what did you feel?”

“It wasn’t something I felt, it was something I just sorta knew. Like a truth you stumble on. I just sorta realized I trusted her different than I trusted other people. I knew there wasn’t anything she could say that would make me want to leave her side, ya know? We’d work through whatever it was.”

* * *

Lily didn’t go to the match that weekend, instead she laid in her flat and cried. Then she went over to Al’s and laid on their couch and cried. Then, she went to work and out to dinner and out to dance and within weeks she was so consumed with her upcoming exams she didn’t have time to be sad anymore. 

But then she saw him. 

And she had to start the process all over again. 

It wasn’t just that she’d seen him, she tried to convince herself. It was the manner in which they ran into one another. The casual and friendly way he smiled and said hello before passing by her at a pub. The way he chatted with Scorpius while playing darts mere feet from her, as if the space between them wasn’t suffocating him the way it was her. 

Then he would smile. Not the smile he used to give when she told a corny joke, but the one he’d given the press while limping passed them. 

And she had to start the process all over again.

She tried to avoid him after that, but they had the same circle of friends and neither seemed willing to give them up. So instead they were forced together at pubs and at concerts and at dinner. They were polite and civil and everything she was afraid they’d never be if their relationship ended in an angry fight. 

Maybe she had done the right thing. Maybe she had saved them both from losing a good friend. Maybe that’s all they were ever meant to be to one another. 

But then she saw him. 

And she had to start the process all over again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Though it does sound bloody painful for the firework...”

Lysander spent the better part of a month replaying that night over and over in his head. He went through the motions at quidditch and tried to ignore the extra paparazzi outside the pitch. It didn’t seem to matter that Lily never came ‘round - they seemed convinced it was because the two of them were trying to keep their relationship under lock and key. That if they stayed dedicated to the cause someone could find proof and sell it to the highest bidder. 

But there was no proof. There was no relationship anymore. Maybe there never had been.

Their paths crossed a couple times over the weeks. The first night was awkward; Lily just sitting with Scorpius and her brother at the local pub in Chudley like she had so many nights before. And in a lot of ways it was as if nothing had changed, but when he met her eyes the truth was evident. 

When Scorpius sold his cottage Lysander thought he might never have to deal with the awkward tension again, but they seemed to always find each other when he was in London too. A part of him was angry with Scorpius for being such good mates with the Potters, but it was hard to be upset with Malfoy for too long. Afterall, the Potters were his family.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the reason for the alarm. He was with us at the Hawthorn & Laurel concert not two nights ago. They appeared quite amicable.”

Scorpius and Lorcan sat in a corner booth of a London pub, watching Lysander throwing darts with their mate Dawsey. Lorcan let out a heavy sigh at Scorpius’ lack of awareness.

“That is exactly the cause for alarm. He does this. Ignores things that upset him. Pretends he doesn’t see the bad parts of life, the bad parts of people. It’s why he was with her in the first pl-”

Lorcan stopped himself before speaking against someone he knew to be Scorpius’ close friend. He didn’t want to be angry with Lily. In the brief time he’d known her she seemed to be a kind person with rough edges - but those rough edges had cut someone he cared for deeply.

“He’ll continue like this until something pushes him too far.”

Lorcan watched his brother laughing with his teammate before taking another drink of his pint. Scorpius finished his own drink, taking in what Lorcan was saying without giving any sort of response in return. 

After another minute of silence he rose to join the game. Dawsey was greeted with a pat on the back and a look that told him to surrender the darts. Accepting the trade off, the chaser headed to the bar for another round.

“Mugs away.” 

Scorpius gestured for Lysander to take the first round. 

“He’s got you worried about me too, then?” His aim was rocky and the dart landed on the edge of the board.

Scorpius shrugged, “I’m more worried about what Dawsey’s got up his sleeve for his stag do this weekend.”

Lysander had gotten to know Scorpius well enough to tell when he was deflecting. He could sense his charm trying to disarm the situation so Lysander would be more willing to open up, pour his heart out, maybe even have a good cry. 

“She’s explained it all then has she?” He asked, deciding he’d rather just cut to the quick of the matter. 

Scorpius looked down at the darts in his hand pensively.

“I had to tell her.” Lysander continued carrying the weight of the conversation. Still, Malfoy didn’t pay him any mind. Instead he walked up to the line and took his aim, so Lysander kept going, “You lot’ve treated Lily like a delicate piece of china when it comes to relationships.”

Scorpius threw his first dart, managing eights, “You disagree?”

“Absolutely!” The young Scamander’s volume had more to do with finally getting a response than the actual answer, so he calmed himself back down before continuing, “Maybe she is a bit...fragile, but not like a piece of china...she’s more like...like a firework” he smiled absent-mindedly at the thought of their first night together, the fireworks exploding above the pitch; the feeling of endless possibilities, “...fireworks aren’t meant to be kept away in some cabinet are they? Breaking them is the point ya see. They need a spark - a flicker to set them off so others can see how bright and full of color they really are.”

The corner of Scorpius’ mouth pulled up into a smirk as Lysander rambled through his muddy analogy. He threw his final dart, “Though it does sound bloody painful for the firework...”

Lysander felt himself echo the smirk as Scorpius patted him on the shoulder. Moments like this were why it was so hard to stay angry with him. He reminded Lysander of his twin, but with a more haunted heart. They gave up on their game and instead waited at the bar for another round, which seemed to just be an excuse for Scorpius to chat up the barmaid. 

“Oi, there’s your firework now...”

Scorpius tore himself away from trying to pull and nodded to the door where Lily had just walked in with a couple of her mates from work. She seemed to be in the middle of a heated debate and didn’t notice any of her surroundings as they found a seat in the center of the room. 

“Two bludgers to the chest and still he caught it!” Dawsey knocked Lysander in the shoulder, joining the pair at the bar, “What a match that was. Your pain tolerance is outta this world, bruv.” 

“You’ve no idea.” Lysander responded as Lily’s eyes found him from across the pub and his heart skipped a beat. Then his eyes focused on the friend she was arguing with and it all but sank to the floor.

“Suddenly I understand why Wood stood us up tonight.” Dawsey laughed which caused Scorpius to smack him across the back of the head.

The night continued without interest for an hour or so, the group debating blame for lost matches and predictions for the upcoming world cup. Scorpius would be asked to play for England again, the group was certain. Dawsey and Lysander were left to hope they’d shown their merit. 

Lysander would steal a glance at Lily when he thought she wasn’t looking, his mind daydreaming of their days together, their nights together, their-

“Oi!” Dawsey pushed his empty pitcher to the blonde, “Your round, bruv.” 

Lysander shook the memories away and knocked his mate in the shoulder for giving him a hard time. He took the pitcher to the bar and waited for the barkeep to refill it. Unfortunately, Kit was at the bar for the same reason. 

“It appears you’ve left Little Potter in quite a state.” Wood flashed a smug smirk at the seeker and Lysander’s eyes absently wandered over to Lily.

“Didn’t think you were coming out tonight. Something about our ‘childish antics?’” Lysander spoke in the most even tone he could manage for someone he reviled.

“Yes, well, I got a better offer.” He smirked again. “Thought I’d lend her my shoulder to cry on...”

Lysander felt his whole body tense. “I think she’ll be all right actually, mate. Maybe you just leave her to it...”

The dark haired wizard gave a cheeky cackle and leaned in a little closer, “I don’t think I will.”

He looked her way again and opened his mouth to say more, but instead was met with a fist to the jaw.   
  


Lysander had failed miserably at keeping his composure, but did throw a brilliant left hook. Kit wasted no time in retaliating and before either could reach for a wand they had wrestled each other to the floor.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, they were being pulled apart. 

Scorpius had a hold of Kit and Lorcan had his brother’s arms pinned behind his back. 

“Okay! Okay! I’ll go all right?!”

Lorcan slowly let go of his brother’s arms, but pushed him towards the back door, away from where Scorpius was still holding back a bloodied Kit. 

Lorcan shrugged as he passed, “I did warn you.”

Scorpius was still ranting at Kit when the door slammed behind them. The taller twin ran his hands through his hair before looking down at his scuffed knuckles then flexed his fingers to be sure they were all still set in place. 

“Bloody hell Sand! Are you actually mental?!” Lorcan scolded. “That’s your career you’ve just punched in the face!”

“Oh shove off with your dramatics. Merlin, it was a row in a pub, not a duel in the streets of London.”

Lysander spit the blood from his mouth onto the concrete. His adrenaline was still surging and Lorcan wasn’t helping to calm him down.

“It was a row with your teammate. In front of your captai-”

“I’ll sort it!”

“Oh ‘you’ll sort it’? Suppose you think Malfoy’ll let this go because you’re such good mates these days? He’s a team to manage Lysander, you can’t expect him to-”

“He may do! Ya know, why don’t you say what you’re really wanting-” Lysander turned on his heels to face his brother, “instead of this feigned protective brother shite?!”

“Oi, is that what you want me to tell you? I told you so! You want to hear me bellow on about how we all saw this coming? Does that help the situation in some way?”

The brothers were nearly nose to nose, a second row on the verge of breaking out, but then the words seemed to settle into Lysander’s heart and he finally let out a heavy sigh.   
  


His anger, he realized, wasn’t at his brother or even at Kit. Lorcan’s eyes were set a little further apart and his jaw was more square than his own, (not to mention his brother’s lip wasn’t currently bleeding), but staring into his near reflection he was forced to see that he was really angry with himself.

“Thought it might” his tone had lost its edge and returned to its usual earnestness. He sank down to sit on the curb, “but really it just makes me feel a bit rubbish.”

There was a loud slam as a group left the front door and the brothers could hear Kit’s muffled rantings storming away.

Lorcan joined his brother on the curb and for a moment they just sat silently in one another’s company.

“I hate seeing you like this, mate.” Lorcan broke the stillness, “I hate that I was right - I’d’ve given anything to be proven wrong. But you have to let yourself feel this or you’re just going to end up hitting someone again...and the next person might not deserve it as much as that prat.”

Lysander coughed out a chuckle and turned to his brother with a cheeky smile, “So we agree he deserved it?” 

They shared a laugh as Lorcan elbowed his brother in the side. The gentle tousle sent a ricochet of pain through Lysander’s side and his hand went to hold where he was certain a bruise would appear the next morning, but he laughed through the pain. 

Another door slam caught their attention, this one much closer to the brothers. They turned to see Lily Potter standing at the back door.

“I’m going to start home. Bit too much excitement for my taste.”

Lysander opened his mouth to stop him, but Lorcan had already disapparated.

Lily seemed to debate her next move, clearly not expecting to find them there. She seemed to have an internal argument before deciding to join him on the curb.

She flipped her hair over to one shoulder, hiding her eyes, “Nothing’s happened...” She finally worked up the courage to say, “Kit...he saw us on the way in and tagged along…” her confidence was building the more she spoke and by the time she finished she was at her normal fierceness, “so if that’s why you hit him...out of some jealous-”

“I hit him because he’s an arse.” Lysander cut through her ranting. He held a finger to his lip to see if it was still bleeding (it was). 

“And yeah, okay...jealousy might’ve been a factor...” he shook his head, knowing the thought of Kit’s hands on her waist made him want to hex something. He continued though, unsure of where his words were going until they had passed his lips. “But it was more than that...it was cause breaking your heart wasn’t enough for him...like every now and then he’s got to make sure the shattered pieces are still scattered about…”

“Still…” he continued, trying to calm himself all over again, “I shouldn’t have done that. You can make your own choices, I was out of line...” he grabbed at his side, trying to pinpoint the source of the pain, “probably get sacked in the morning. There’s this new kid out of Manchester - fastest broom in England they say...not a single injury either, of course he’s not really played professionally yet so it’s an easy record to have.”

Finally, Lily brushed her hair from her face and looked him up and down, her eyes resting on his split lip. She reached out towards him, but he pulled away from her touch. 

“Hold still. This is hard enough without my wand.”

She reached out again and held his chin steady before gently brushing her thumb over his lips as she all but whispered, “Episkey.”

His lip grew hot and then ice cold under her touch before settling back to normal. Her eyes watched as his lip mended and then they looked up to meet his. 

“I should go...I’ve got to work out how to give an apology that’s not through gritted teeth.”

Lysander pulled out of her grasp and started to rise, but Lily took his arm to stop him.

“Wait...Please.”

“I can’t, Lily. I can’t keep doing this. Being this way with you.” He met her eyes and realized there were tears welled up in the corners of them. It tore through him to not reach out and wipe them away, “I hate feeling like this and we all saw how well I cope with it...”

Her hand fell away as he stood, but he didn’t make it a step away before she called after him.

“Please, Sander. I just want to talk-”

“I don’t want to talk to you.” He startled even himself with how curt his answer was. He felt his heart drop at her hurt expression and knew he had to explain further, “The more we talk, the more I want to hold you...and then kiss you...and then fall in love with you.”

He shrugged as the answer hung between them, though he noticed the word didn’t make her shudder as it had before. He turned back to the pub, needing a drink more now than when the night had started.

“Is there nothing I can say then?” She shouted after him, “Nothing that can set things right?”

Her anger grew more desperate as she called after him, “You’re just going to cut me out of your life from here on out?”

He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket before turning around slowly, knowing the only question he needed answered, “Do you love me?”

“That’s not fair. It’s more complicated than that.”

“It’s a yes or no question.”

“No it’s a cliff and you’re asking me to jump off of it.” She asserted stubbornly, taking a step towards him, “How do I know I’m not just caught up in emotion? How do I know you’re not going to take it all back when things get hard? What am I supposed to do if I carve out space for you and then you just leave because you’ve finally realized what a bloody mess I am?!”

“You trust me!” He shouted back at her. She was the most infuriating person he’d ever met. Adamant and insecure and beautiful. “You believe that when I say I love you, I mean you. Not some before version of you. I don’t want to put you back together Lily, I love all the shattered pieces.” A tear rolled down her cheek and this time he couldn’t stop himself from wiping it away.

His hand stayed there, holding her, “and it’s okay if you can’t do that, but-”

Before he knew what was happening her lips had crashed into his and her hands were tangled in his hair. She pressed closer to him, forcing him back against the brick of the building and they were lost in one another as they had been so many times before. 

He caught his breath when she peeled herself away and met his eyes, “I believe you and I...I love you, Sander.” She wrapped her hands around his collar and pulled him close again, pressing her forehead against his, “but I need you to help me hold on to you…”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Could you do me the courtesy of not flaunting your blissful happiness?”

Lily woke up smiling. 

She turned to watch the reason for her giddiness sleep soundly beside her. Looking down, she noticed most of the duvet was haphazardly tangled around herself rather than equally shared - which only made her smile wider. Her finger gently traced the word ‘lover’ down Lysander’s spine before snuggling in closer and kissing his shoulder. 

“Is that an apology for hoarding the duvet?” He turned his head so they lay there, nose to nose. 

One of her legs wrapped around his as she leaned in, her lips hovering just over his ear, “Could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?”

He tucked a hand around her waist and flipped her over, sending the duvet over the both of them and they giggled like children under a blanket fort. 

Lysander brushed Lily’s crimson waves out of her face, “Forgiven.” 

It was one word, but Lily could feel the deeper truth in it; that he’d forgive her for anything - and she waited for the fear of it to overtake her. She waited for her gut to kick off the blanket and send her running out the door - but it never came. 

“You should put that question to your cousin too...that way I don’t have to live in fear of another howler waking us at six in the morning.”

They both laughed at their memories of the previous morning. It’d been nearly two days since either had left Lily’s flat and it was easy to forget the rest of the world was still spinning - but when Rose’s howler started in on Lily it all came crashing back into perspective. 

Rose had finally confronted Scorpius about their divorce, but it seemed timely that she also announced an engagement to Anders Creevey. Apparently, this sparked hesitation in Scorpius to correct the error and Rose then deflected the blame for the debacle [enter howler]. 

Lysander found the whole situation to be both incredibly riveting and incredibly heartbreaking. They both knew a part of Scorpius was still in love with Rose and the thought that she’d come back into his life only to tell him she was engaged to someone else was gutting. 

“You don’t have to wake up here at all you know…” Lily teased and Lysander rose his eyebrows in fake surprise. 

“Oh is that how it is then?” He teased back and then tickled under her ribs where he knew she’d be unable to resist laughing. She kicked against him and tried to retaliate, but was much more ticklish of the two. 

Their laughter settled and Lysander kissed her forehead before fighting his way out of the duvet fortress. 

“I’ll put the kettle on, yeah?” He asked before throwing the curtains open to let in the morning light. 

Lily covered her eyes to block the rays, but peeked through them to watch a shirtless Lysander pass by. Once he’d left she pulled the duvet back over her head and giggled like a twelve year old. She couldn’t remember a time she’d been so whole-heartedly happy. So at peace. 

Then there was a knock on her front door and the unmistakable tenor of Scorpius Malfoy, “No wonder you missed the stag do.” 

His voice crashed through her happiness in a watershed of guilt and her giggling ended. She didn’t hear Sander’s response in her haste to pull a robe over the slip she’d slept in. 

“I told her to talk to you Scorp. More than once I told her.”

She met the simmering Malfoy toe-to-toe near the door, not allowing him to intimidate or guilt her anymore than she already felt. 

“You should have told me.”

Her attempts to be resolute vanished with his broken tone and she felt her once proudly postured shoulders slump. She looked to the floor for a moment, trying to choose the right words to explain herself.

“I didn’t want to put myself between the two of you again.” Scorpius’s eyes tracked something behind her and Lily became abruptly aware of Lysander being in earshot of their conversation. “I didn’t know her thing with Anders was anything serious...had I known that I would’ve told you, Scorp. I promise I would’ve.”

Malfoy ran a hand over his face before taking a deep breath and slumping into the armchair behind him. “Albus wants me to just sign and be done with it.”

“And you don’t?” Lysander asked, sitting on the couch across from him. Scorpius’s eyes narrowed in on him, but Sander didn’t seem intimidated, “Look mate, you can’t just stay married to her out of spite. What? Is it supposed to teach Rose some sort of lesson?”

“Maybe it does.” Scorp started in the same tone as before, but then he let out a deep breath and continued, “she doesn’t get to just apparate in after years and make demands.”

Lily’s blood was boiling thinking of the hurt her cousin was still able to inflict on her dear friend so she sat on the couch to try and maintain her temper. She hadn’t realized Lysander’s arm wrapped around her until she looked back at Scorpius who hadn’t missed a moment of it.

“Could you do me the courtesy of not flaunting your blissful happiness?”

Lily had to yawn to cover the smile that she’d started and she felt Lysander peel his arm from around her. 

“Can you give us a minute?” She asked and Lysander nodded in understanding, before heading for the back room.

“Since when are you two back together anyways?”

Lily’s stomach did a somersault at the concept of ‘together,’ but she tried to maintain her bravado, “Who says we are?”

“The girlish grin you're trying to hide. The fact that Sander’s been MIA ever since he socked your ex. The-”

“All right.” She let out a heavy sigh and crossed her legs in an attempt to get some of her nervous energy worked out before she spoke again, “Look. She’s already ignored my advice, Scorpius, you know I can’t do anything more to make her listen. So why did you come here? To wallow?”

The shower went on in the back of the flat and Scorpius let out a huff as he was reminded again that there was life happening around him undeterred from his own misery. 

He let out a sigh, “I was going to ask if I could crash at yours for a bit.” Visibly agitated, he stood to leave, “Albus’ perfect family is getting a little suffocating as of late. But seeing as you’re partaking in domesticated bliss with my seeker, I suppose I’ll find somewhere else.”

Lily followed after him, “I know the perfect place for you to rest your head, Malfoy. Plenty of room. No happy people within miles. And, would you believe it? Half your closet is already moved in. Wasn’t that the whole point of selling your place out in Chudley?”

They met with their arms crossed over their chests. Neither seemed willing to back down from their position, but neither wanted to escalate the tensions any higher than they’d already done. 

“Selling the cottage was twofold.” Scorpius’s eyes peered down the hall before letting his arms down at his sides and loosening his posture, “Can I stay at yours or not?”

Lily opened her palm to reveal the spare key to her flat with a cheeky grin.

* * *

Scorpius spent the next week at Lily’s flat and suggested they go out nearly every night. He was desperate for the noise of the city and Sander was always up for anything, so they spent most of the week at some club or another. One night, Lily left the pub still holding Lysander’s hand and the photo made the front of Witch Weekly. To her surprise it didn’t seem to rattle the youngest Potter like it had before. She’d grown more open with her public affections and let the press glance off her back without concern for what they were reporting. In fact, when the press started to hound Scorpius with questions about Rose’s love life she and Sander would offer random facts about their own relationship or stage a fight to draw their attention. 

  
Then, suddenly, their fun and revelry came to a screeching halt. Scorpius left; retreating back to the calm of Albus and Charlotte’s roost as if he’d gotten the noise out of his system.

“We don’t mind him staying, honest. If he’s still out flying in the middle of the night...you need your rest.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” Charlotte reached a hand out and patted her sister-in-law’s in a comforting gesture, “but it’s no trouble.” She turned to watch the group of boys flying their brooms around the empty field, “What must be going through his mind…”

“Wouldn’t know, he won’t really talk about it.”

Lily watched the back acre through her lens as Scorpius and Albus seemed to play keep away from the Scamander twins. All four were smiling and laughing and it made Lily smile too. 

“Oh! I nearly forgot! Look what was in the post this morning.” She put her camera down and pulled out that morning’s mail with her passing marks.

Charlotte flipped open the envelope and grinned warmly, “This is fantastic Lily! We’ve got to celebrate!”

“Of course we’re going to celebrate! I studied for months for this moment!”

A sudden outburst of shouts and boos mixed with victorious whoops came from the makeshift pitch as the twins took what appeared to be a victory lap, much to Albus and Scorpius’s chagrin.

“Besides, we could all use an excuse to blow off some steam.”

The youngest Potter had finally earned the marks needed to get out of the filing paperwork stage of her career and was nearly guaranteed a promotion. She watched Lysander making fake crying faces at Albus and Scorp and captured the moment forever. She caught the photo and shook it for a moment, smiling at what began to appear.

“Are you and Sander living together, then? You said ‘we’ before, I don’t know if you realized.”

Lily fiddled with the film in her camera, “Just because my brothers have gone after the picket fence and 2.5 kids doesn’t mean it’s in the cards for all of us.”

Now it was Charlotte’s turn to shake her head, not believing a word of it. She rested her hands on the baby bump that was starting to overtake her abdomen before turning back to the men. Lorcan tried the same move they had just scored off of, but this time Scorpius saw it coming. He knocked the Quaffle with the back of his broomstick and dove to catch it before either Scamander was able to figure out what had happened. 

“It’s nice to see him smiling again. I thought he was headed for another tailspin when Albus told me he’d be staying at yours.”

“Considering the situation, I think he’s been processing fairly well. Plus, he’s got the World Cup to distract him now.”

Both Scorpius and Lysander would be playing for the English team during the next year’s World Cup. Both of the men had been pulled into so many trainings and press junkets in the past week that Lily wondered how they could be enjoying themselves playing the same game yet again.

“And Rose? Have you heard from her at all since she-”

“Left with no explanation again?”

“He’s refusing to sign Lily. She had to tell her fiancé.”

“She shouldn’t have even shown up here without telling that poor lad, Lotte. Better yet, she should have taken care of this months ago like she said she was going to-”

Lily had meant to continue, but all of the men had landed and were descending upon the patio. Albus kissed Charlotte on the cheek before sitting next to her on the swing. Lysander sat next to Lily, holding her hand under the table. He reached for the glasses of water that sat on the table in the center with his free hand, passing one over to his brother. Scorpius grabbed one for himself before sitting on the stone bench.

“At some point you’ve got to quit blaming your broomstick, Lorcan.”

“All I’m saying is there’s a reason you give me the same one every time we scrimmage. Aura’s are strong links, even without meaning to you might’ve attached some bad energy.”

The group laughed light-heartedly and Lysander knocked his brother in the shoulder. Lily felt Sander squeeze her hand under the table and felt Lorcan’s eyes watching her. Their heated conversation still haunted her and she was certain that his polite comradery was nothing more than a practice in civility. He’d been around more since she’d gotten back together with his brother, but was clearly not her biggest fan. She tried to avoid his eyeline since she was pretty certain it was causing her nausea.

“Lily’s throwing a do for her marks. I’ll send owls later, but keep this next weekend free.” Charlotte urged. 

Scorpius lifted his glass of water, “Congrats LP.” 

Albus raised his glass too before tousling her hair, “Yeah, Little Potter!”

“Next person to call me that is getting disinvited.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It left most of them with their ears ringing, but it didn’t matter much. Lysander had heard quite enough for one night.

Lysander spun Lily around on the dance floor with the biggest grin on his face as her dress sparkled, catching the light. Most people, if asked a year ago where they think they’d be, would never have answered with his new normal - but that’s exactly why those people would never get what they hoped for. 

He hadn’t meant to fall in love with her, but the first night she stumbled out of his bed he knew it would be inevitable. Love wasn’t new for him (afterall Lysander had always been good at falling), but there was something different about the way he loved Lily. Something more intense and yet more simple, something he never wanted to be without again. 

“Where are you right now? You seem miles away…” Lily cooed as she spun back to him. 

He held her close as they swayed, “Just thinking how lucky I am that you climbed into the wrong window.”

She returned his grin before kissing his cheek and twirling herself around again as the song ramped into its chorus. Her dress flickered again, but Lysander was starting to think it wasn’t catching the lights of the room, but simply the glow from Lily herself. 

Eventually they took a break from dancing for Lily to do a lap and bask in the many congratulatory remarks offered her way. He watched her sparkle from one conversation to another throughout the flat until a red fingernail traced along his collarbone, capturing his attention.

“Heard you’ve been chosen for the English team...” The woman put her arm around his neck to pull herself closer against him.

“Sorry, but I’m spoken for.”

She tossed her blonde curls over her shoulder with a laugh, “Are you now?” 

His eyes searched for Lily in the crowd again before the woman took hold of his chin gently and turned it to the corner of the room. There was Lily, spinning around the dancefloor with one of her coworkers. She would have doubled over in laughter if the man hadn’t caught her and leaned her back into a deep dip as if they were in the middle of a seductive tango.

“She doesn’t seem bothered...”

Lysander smirked to himself before twisting his way out of the woman’s reach and nearly running into the next room. The change of scenery didn’t provide any more safety. It seemed every time he turned around a different stranger was trying to pull.

Finally, a familiar face wrapped her arm around his waist and drug him from the thick of it. “Perhaps zis time, you will leave wis your date?”

Lysander grinned from ear to ear at Marsali’s teasing. They’d been travelling together all week doing press for the English team, but he never tired of her company.

“Ta” he winked as she drug him away even further to the makeshift bar and was glad to see Scorpius pouring two fire-whiskeys. However, after Scorpius downed the first serving, he picked up the second and took a sip of it too. Realizing that neither was intended for him, Lysander reached for the bottle.

“Have women just been throwing themselves at you all this time? Because if they have I’ve really misjudged your temperament.”

“The Cup isn’t what’s gotten you extra attention. Your relationship has.”

The stoic blonde took the shot Lysander had poured and finished it before the seeker could even quibble about it. He followed Scorpius’ eyes out the window, watching Rose Weasley laugh along in a conversation.

“People want what they aren’t allowed to have.”

Upon further inspection it was clear Scorpius wasn’t watching his ex-wife, but the man beside her with his hand around her waist.

“Then again, women do tend to wander my way quite often so maybe it is the allure of fame and fortune.”

Scorpius smirked before reaching for the bottle of clear liquid again, but this time Marsali snatched it away. 

“You can have more when you agree to captain za team.”

“You two realize the Cup’s just hype.” 

He answered flatly before crossing his arms over his chest, clearly annoyed that Marsali was holding the bottle out of his reach. Lysander countered with what the World Cup meant to the wizarding world, what he remembered watching his first one, how much he thought the English team was robbed of a victory not three years prior. Scorpius, however, growing more and more agitated by the seeker’s hopeful and sunny disposition, decided to counter each compliment; the conversation devolved into a heated debate.

“You can’t blame that loss on any one player though can ya? Far as I could tell you were just outmatched.”

“That’s what I keep telling him. You left your heart on that pitch and ya were lucky to even be there.”

Lysander hadn’t even bothered to look at who’d joined their conversation. Had he taken the care, he would have recognized Anders Creevey.

“Luck is putting it strongly,” Rose’s fiance continued, “I mean for a captain to come from the Cannons back then, and to even make it on the English line-up. That must have taken true dedication.”

Scorpius seemed to pull himself up to his full height so that he could look down on Anders, “Ta,” he responded sharply, taking the glass out of Lysander’s hand and raising it in a toast, “which is why the next Cup,” he opened himself back towards the room before shouting, “We shall conquer!”

The crowd echoed the Canon’s motto as he finished off Marsali’s drink and disappeared around a corner. 

“There you are!” Lily all but shouted as she suddenly appeared behind the blonde seeker, resting her hands on his shoulders before hoisting herself up. Lysander hooked her legs around his waist before spinning around.

“Rose is here - with Creevey. Can you believe the nerve on her?”

“Seeing as she’s your relative I absolutely can.”

“You wound me.” Lily responded flatly before kissing his cheek.

He felt her head rest on his shoulder while he stepped out onto the patio. Then, once the night breeze tickled the back of his neck she pushed herself up straighter. 

“And Marsali,” she started again and Sander felt the discomfort in her voice, “she’s been around a lot lately.”

“Yeah” he responded as evenly as he could, “It’s nice having her and Scorp, you know, with all the new people and personalities these past weeks. To have people you already get on with.”

Lysander stopped near a table and sat Lily on its edge.

“There’s been too many people these past weeks for my taste. You should lock the door so we can have this terrace to ourselves, “ she teased, undoing a button on his shirt.

“You are out of control,” he answered between kisses.

“LP? Lily?! There you are!” A voice shouted from the doorway, “Bunch of us have to head out soon.” 

The awning cast too dark a shadow to tell who it was, but their identity didn’t really matter in the end.

“You’ve a good pair of lungs on ya” Lysander teased, “Could tell ‘em goodbye from here.” 

She smiled before gently pushing him a step back to jump from the counter, “I told you to lock the door.”

Lysander didn’t have the terrace to himself for long. Shortly after Lily made it back inside, Anders appeared with a stumbling Rose at his side. 

“Sleep it off a bit, love.”

He encouraged the redhead before they sat on the loveseat near the railing. Sander moved toward the door himself, but then emerged Albus and his wife who sat the loveseat opposite Anders. 

“She smashed then, yeah?” 

Albus asked as his wife put her feet across his lap. 

“She can be quite incorrigible when she wants to be.” Was the outsider’s response. 

“A family trait to be sure.” Charlotte laughed with a playful kick at her husband.

Lysander turned to the door again, but was stopped by her next statement, “Sander’ll back us up.” She waved him over so he took a seat in the chair at the end of the seating area. 

“Where’s your brother tonight? Did we scare him away?”

“Not sure, actually. He said he’d stop ‘round, but I’ve not seen him.”

“Then again, your attention has been otherwise engaged.”

Lysander could never tell when Albus was joking. He seemed to have a dry sense of humor and delivered his jokes as plainly as his opinion.

“Go on, tell us a story Anders. Some adventure you and our Rosie’s been on.”

Charlotte requested as she stared up at the stars. Anders seemed flustered and unsure, but finally started a story of being knee deep in quicksand somewhere in South America and having to cast a Carpe Retractum charm to pull themselves out. Charlotte asked for another and he obliged. 

Lily found her way back out after most of her guests had left. Seeing all the seats occupied, she sat in Lysander’s lap.

“How bout the two of you?” Anders turned the question on Charlotte, “How’d the two of you meet? You weren’t together back at school were you?”

Albus and Charlotte seemed to share an inside joke in the way they exchanged glances, then they told the story just as they had a hundred times before. 

“At least I stayed in the air my first flight!”

Charlotte joked with a giggle, but Albus fired back,

“I would hardly call hovering two feet off the ground a ‘first flight.’”

“We aren’t having this debate again are we? It’s a wonder either of you finished that course.”

Scorpius had joined at the edge of their gathering.

“We had a few other courses together over the years, never really spoke-”

“But when she saw me looking at that Nimbus in the window she just felt compelled to warn me purchasing it would be a grave mistake.”

“Which is when he said he’d only been staring in that window for so long because I had been on the other side of it.”

Lysander withdrew from the conversation, instead drawing shapes on Lily’s back as she guessed what the images were. She got the snitch correct, but couldn’t figure out the nargle. So when Anders asked,

“How about the two of you?”

They were both too caught off guard to answer.

Rose, however, was all too prepared, “Oh yes, do regale us with that tale of romance and valor...”

Her words slurred together and the whole group seemed to look from one person to another, unsure how to move forward. It’d been so long since any of them had seen Rose, let alone a drunk Rose. So instead of someone helpful speaking up, another drunk interjected, 

“Maybe you should head in, Rose. Sleep it off a bit, yeh?”

“Why are you even here Scorpius? I mean I get that your family is shite, but that doesn’t mean you can just push in on ours.”

Lily erupted in her mate’s defense, launching herself at her cousin. Lysander wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her in his lap. Albus and Charlotte’s heads flung around to see Scorpius’ reaction. But Scorpius, ever the Malfoy, stood silent and still. Anders made a quick attempt to diffuse the tension.

“You know I’ve got an assignment in the States on Monday, so we should start home, love.”

He patted Rose’s leg again, but she shook him away and stood, gesturing towards the circle of people.

“You wanted to spend time with my family Anders. Here they are. The famous Albus Potter with his perfect wife - expecting their first perfect child. His darling sister and her latest conquest - actually you’re lucky to be here tonight because he’s a repeat offender and those are very rare for her.”

“Why am I being drug into this?”

Lily asked with a chuckle, buzzed enough to find Rose’s furry entertaining, but Lysander knew the two of them exchanging words was just waiting for the right spark to turn into a physical altercation. 

“What? All of a sudden Lily Potter doesn’t want to be the center of attention? Is that why you’ve spent the last three years working your way through the Cannon’s roster? Sander and Kit could trade Potter tips, or better yet we could ask Scor-”

“Rose Malfoy is judging my love life?”

And there was the spark.

There’d be no containing his firework after a comment like that. Lysander could see her anger simmering. It was an observation that put Albus even more on edge. He silently motioned for Charlotte to follow him back towards the flat. One intoxicated redhead could do enough damage with their family, let alone both of them.

“Because it is still Malfoy isn’t it?”

Lily continued, fighting her way to her feet again. Lysander stood too and kept an arm around her waist to keep her from making a decision she’d regret. 

“And that just kills you doesn’t it?!” Rose threw back.

The rest of the group’s voices echoed onto deaf ears. Neither woman was listening to anything but each other’s insults. Lily lunged for Rose again, but missed and instead slugged Anders in the shoulder.

“Don’t touch him!”

“Oh please. Like I’d want anything to do with your cheeky fiance.”

“Well you wasted no time sleeping with my husband!”

Lysander had been so consumed with trying to keep Lily from hurting herself - or someone else that he hadn’t been paying attention to the insults being hurled around, but the words were finally starting to process through his mind. Lily and Scorpius’s past was an assumption that everyone carried, but no one had ever confirmed. Having the truth of it shouted at him knocked the wind out of him and his arms let go of Lily. 

She took the moment to maneuver herself to reach for Anders' wand and before she wrapped her fingers around it, a sudden burst of light blinded the whole group. Half of them were blown into the couches, the other were shot clear across the terrace. Charlotte and Albus were able to duck behind the bar counter and avoid the main shock. It left most of them with their ears ringing, but it didn’t matter much. Lysander had heard quite enough for one night.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If she changed the subject right now he’d follow her lead and they’d put the truth of her and Scorp for another day- for the day he decided he’d had enough and needed an excuse to leave.

Lily’s eyes tried to focus on one of the blurry shapes at the end of where she lay. She decided to squint and make it more clear, but everything was still blending together into clean white orbs. Giving up on her sight, she instead opened her mouth as wide as a yawn in an attempt to have her ears pop; the room still sounded like it was underwater. 

She brushed a hand over her eyes and finally started to make out that it was a table sitting across from her. It was the same color as the wall, which was the same color as the floor. The only other furniture was a chair next to the bed she was in, which held a sleeping seeker.

Her memories started to pour back in. The party, argument, the explosion. Albus came in to explain that she and Rose triggered a protective spell Anders had put on his wand. Then the healer returned and asked question after question after question.

She held her mouth closed and pinched her nose shut before blowing as hard as she could.

“What are you doing?” Lysander laughed.

“Trying to get the cotton out of my ears.” To her surprise, the trick had actually worked; for the most part anyways. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A few hours. You’ve fractured your arm and they insisted that an Emendo spell was best. Even though I’ve been through enough brakes and dislocations to know that one gulp of skele-grow would have you out of here already.”

Lily looked down at her left arm that had been wrapped in a sling. She wiggled her fingers a bit and grimaced when she got over ambitious in trying to move her wrist too.

“They insisted on this way, so it’s gonna take a couple days to fully mend.” Lysander leaned over the bed, taking her healthy hand, “They’ve also asked that you stay for observation until the afternoon for some reason or other.”

Lily could feel her heart start to race. She knew why the healers were being so cautious, but it was too much for her to fully process.

They had been relentless that night. Asking her question after question, but refusing to answer any of hers. It wasn’t until they promised no one had been seriously injured and that she’d be able to see Lysander once they put together her treatment plan that she started to cooperate. 

Then, ten minutes later, a different healer - one that seemed to have more clout than the others started in at her with a no-nonsense tone, _“Ms. Potter. I do apologize for the confusion and delay, but we’ve had to change our treatment plan. It appears-”_

“You’re pale as a ghost, love.” Lysander put the back of his hand against her forehead and then to her cheek, forcing her to return to the present moment, “I didn’t meant to worry you, I’m sure it’s just routine or-”

“I think I’m just tired,” she pulled back from Lysander’s comforting touch. “You should go, yeah? There’s no point in both of us spending all day in hospital,” then she turned away from him to look back at the empty table across the room, desperately hoping he’d leave her to her thoughts.

“Hey,” he sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand again, “Wherever you are is where I want to be.”

His sincerity tore through her and she felt her stomach start to turn at the news still sitting in the back of her mind. She didn’t doubt him in the least, but that was exactly what scared her. 

She was never going to be able to love him like that; so ardently or with such simple certainty. Surely, one day he’d see. One day he’d realize that he loved her more than she could ever love him and that he deserved to be loved better...and that’s when he’d leave.

“If it makes you feel any better, Rose has spent the last three hours in an uncomfortable chair answering a hundred questions about why her fiancé’s wand carried such a powerful protection charm. Albus is in with them now.”

In the twisted way that we all love other people’s misery, Lily was glad. However, that glee couldn’t push through the sheer terror still coursing through her with every glance at the man beside her.

“Al and Charlotte weren’t affected,” he continued, clearly sensing the growing tension and choosing to talk his way out of it, “they had enough mind to clear the area before you two really went at it.” He paused for a moment, seeming to realize he talked himself into more tension, “Scorp is fine.” His eyes fell to their intertwined fingers, “physically at least. They’ve grounded him for a few weeks so he’s fairly pissed off.”

He won’t ask anything more about it. 

If she changed the subject right now he’d follow her lead and they’d put the truth of her and Scorp for another day- for the day he decided he’d had enough and needed an excuse to leave.

Lily thought back to walking by the press at the pitch, to the night he punched Kit across the face; for someone who talked such a big game of trust and honesty, Sander certainly withheld his fair share of feelings. 

“It was one time, Sander. Years ago.” She started. Barreling into a conversation she didn’t want to have for the simple fact that he wanted to have it even less. “Just before Albus got married.”

He continued to stare at their hands so she took hers back, daring him to counter.

“It’s not important.” Was his simple response and Lily heard herself scoff.

“It was important that night I climbed in your window. Important enough to tease me about anyways.”

“I wasn’t teasing I was…” he started to answer, before stopping himself and holding back whatever his unfiltered response would have been. Instead he shook his head before looking back up at her. “I probably was teasing you a bit...I was just trying to figure you out.”

“I did by the way. Sleep in Scorp’s bed often. It was a deal we struck up a while back.”

She’d taken on an unintentionally brusk tone, but wasn’t going to back down from it. She couldn’t afford doubt anymore. 

“I have this bad habit of shagging Kit whenever the loneliness gets too loud or the boredom gets too quiet. Seeing as that wasn’t the healthiest of decisions Scorp promised his bed was always open should I feel the need to wake up next to someone.” She shrugged to emphasize the casualness of their arrangement. “He spends most of the night flying anyway.”

Lysander was clearly thrown, seeming to chew on her words before he finally responded calmly, “What do you want me to say right now, Lily?”

“I don’t want you to say anything, I want you to scream! I want you to throw something or hex something. I want you to be jealous! I want you to feel something- anything - at the thought of me loving someone else.”

“If you were in love with someone else I would!” Lysander shook his head back and forth, trying desperately to understand her reasoning, but unable to connect the dots, “but you’re not in love with Scorpius.” 

“You can’t know that.” Lily moved to throw her arms in the air in her fury, but her left arm stayed strapped to her chest and she grimaced at the pain again, “Maybe Rose coming back stirred up feelings in me from back then. Maybe you being away at training these past few weeks got me thinking, maybe-”

“Maybe there’s something else bothering you so you’re pushing me away.”

She loved that he saw through her bullshit. That he understood her so clearly.

But she also hated him for it.

Because it was making it impossible for her to let him go.

Tears were welling up in the corners of her eyes as she accused, “Marsali.” 

She wasn’t sure what her accusation even was, but was desperate for something to shake him loose.

“You talk about the Arrows all the time. The pubs, the matches, the team...but you never talk about her…” she found her angle as she continued, “do you think just because your past wasn’t on the front page I don’t know about it?”

Lysander brushed at his eyebrow with the back of his hand as he stood, squeezing his eyes together in an effort to link their earlier conversation to this one.

“Does it even matter what I tell you? Or have you already made up your mind to be angry with me about it?”

“It makes sense, you know? The two of you together. Watching you two dance around at the festival, seeing the way she joked with the guys about quidditch last night...you two just fit. Why didn’t it work out between you I wonder.”

“What are you doing right now?” 

“I’m just saying, if those feelings are still around then you owe it to yourself to see them through. That’s what I’ve been on Rose about this whole time isn’t it? That she’s not over Scorp, he’s not over her, if either one of them just admitted it they could be happy together, but instead they’re miserable apart.”

“Seriously? With you and Scorp’s relationship being what it is? Having told me what you just did- and you want me to think that you’re jealous of me and Marsali?”

Lysander stood and paced to the window and back three times as he tried to figure out how to respond to this impossible conversation. 

“As if you can’t understand what it’s like to be friends with someone you’ve slept with?” 

He ran a hand through his hair and then over his face to try and collect his composure.

“If it needs to be said then I’ll say it. I don’t want to be with anyone else, Lily. I want you.” He sat beside her again, as desperate to hold on as Lily was to let go, “I can’t - I don’t know how to make you believe me, but when I think about my future you’re in it.”

He started to reach for her hand, but seemed to think better of it and instead just nervously picked at the bed sheet. 

But she couldn’t tell him the truth. She couldn’t even bring herself to say the words out loud. 

“I want…” she started, pausing to steady her breathing, “...I want you to go.”

She closed her eyes so his couldn’t change her mind. 

And she waited for what seemed like hours before his footsteps finally started towards the door, shuddering at the sound of it closing behind him. 

What had she done? Why couldn’t she have just been honest with him? Why was she always sabotaging her own happiness? 

Turning back to the table across the room she noticed something scattered across it. It was her camera, probably smashed from the chaos. Lysander managed to stitch most of it back together, but some of the mechanical parts were too small to ever work properly again. 

It was just all too much and she just needed some time to be alone.

But she wasn’t going to be alone ever again.

_They had sent in a different healer, one with more clout than the others._

_“Ms. Potter. I do apologize for the confusion and delay, but we’ve had to change our treatment plan. It appears you’re pregnant.”_


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe some people knocked over towers and others simply built them back up.

_“You’re only a few weeks along. I recommend waiting until you’ve passed the twelve week mark to tell anyone apart from the father. Would you like me to-”_

Lily couldn’t remember the rest of the conversation. She hadn’t really registered anything after the word pregnant.

  
Because she couldn’t be.

  
  
Well, she definitely could be- but no. Lily Potter couldn’t be a mother.

  
  
“Noa!”

Her brother’s shout from the other room brought her back from her thoughts and she stared down at the tower of blocks she’d just punched over out of frustration.

  
  
Her eyes wandered to her niece who was pointing an accusing finger her way, but Lily just stuck out her tongue.

  
“Potters don’t snitch, little miss. Jamey should’ve taught you that by now.”

Noa giggled and clapped her hands together, not understanding the nuanced threat and instead only hearing the word, “Snitch! Snitch! Snitch!”

Lily covered her face with her good hand, not needing another reminder of what she’d left behind in London. She already saw his hand holding hers every time she shut her eyes. Heard his whispered affections in her ear the moment she laid down to rest. 

Then another thought came to her, “Actually, you probably can keep a secret. Your attention span seems shorter than even Sander’s, so there’s a good chance you don’t even hear me talking right now…”

The toddler was completely ignoring her, fixated instead on rebuilding her tower of blocks, which finally gave Lily the safe space she needed to process her racing thoughts out loud.

“Cause I get it okay - I see that I ran away. I mean, bloody hell I’m in Romania.” She took one of the fallen blocks and added it to the tower, “Was it an overreaction? No. No I’d say for the news I was given, it was an appropriate response. I’m allowed to be a bit panicked right now aren’t I?”

Noa, still unconcerned with her aunt’s existential crisis held out a block to help her tower get taller, but Lily just waved it around while she continued on, “Cause this wasn’t on my to-do list, ya know? Maybe it was...decades from now...maybe...I DON’T KNOW!” she shouted and knocked the tower over again, this time with her arm that was still in a sling.

  
  
Noa giggled, almost maniacally, before starting at collecting and building again; content in her endless cycle for now. 

“Noa, babes, you’ve got to stop-” James ended his sentence the moment he rounded the corner and saw Lily sitting cross-legged next to the scattered tower of blocks, “Really, Lil?”

“She thinks it’s a game. Look how happy she is to start all over again. Honestly it’s an admirable quality. You should thank me for teaching your child how to deal with the cruel world she’s to inherit.”

“The girl running away from her problems with an arm in a sling is teaching my daughter life lessons?”

Lily stuck her tongue out again, this time at her brother. 

A cry came from back down the hallway and James shook his head back and forth at his sister, “My other terror is sleeping in fifteen minute increments so teach her whatever you want so long as it doesn’t make the house echo when he finally does lay down.”

“Fine then. We’ll move our game to the rug.” Lily answered smugly as if she’d just solved all their problems, but she quickly found that Noa had no interest in moving her game.

Every time Lily tried to move the block tower to the rug next to her, the toddler stacked them back onto the wooden floor.

James stood at the corner, crossing his arms over his chest, entertained by his sisters floundering confidence. “I don’t know about Noa, but I’m definitely learning a lot.”

“Be nice.” His wife rounded the corner and smacked him across the back of the head, undercutting her own command. “Come on love, time for your nap too.”

Logan held her hand out and her daughter ran to grab it, tripping over her excited feet and needing to make a second go of it. Nevertheless, she made it to her mum’s arms and leapt into them. 

“Give daddy a kiss.” Logan stopped next to James so their daughter could kiss his cheek, “Maybe he’ll turn back into a frog.”

She teased before spinning quickly around in a circle and then barreling down the hallway, Noa’s arms outstretched as she pretended to be a bird, or a dragon, or anything she’d seen fly. 

James just shook his head before turning to calm his other child, but Lily stood abruptly, “I’ll get him.” She heard herself offer. 

“You want to rock my wailing son back to sleep?”

Not exactly, but she didn’t want to be alone.

She thought she did; Lily had been certain that she needed space to think and breathe, but once she’d be granted it the isolation ate away at her. 

“I’m bored.” She lied, quickly passing him before he could question her intentions any longer. 

She pulled the screaming baby from his bassinet and nestled into the corner’s rocking chair. 

“Hey Little Potter.” She cooed and pushed the chair back and forth with one foot, “what’s wrong, LP?” 

Apparently, all he needed was a bit of attention because his cries calmed almost immediately after the rocking began. 

“That’s it huh? Just wanted someone to hold you is all.” 

She rested her head against the back of the chair and tried to picture it. Holding her own child. Building blocks and spinning around hallways. Maybe it wasn’t such a crazy thought after all. 

Peering down, she saw his little face in a peaceful sleep so, for a moment, she stopped rocking. The bundle in her arms began wiggling against his swaddled blanket and he opened his mouth to shriek again and she returned to the rhythmic motion. 

Just keep moving. That’s all he needed.

  
  
But Lily couldn’t just keep moving. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life running from people, from feelings, from pain. Eventually it all caught up. 

And wouldn’t it be easier to deal with all that pain, all those feelings, if there was someone there with you through it? Why did she feel like she had to do things alone all the time? Why couldn’t she just trust that someone wanted to hold her?

Maybe everything wasn’t as complicated as she made it out to be. Maybe some people knocked over towers and others simply built them back up.

“All right. Pass him over, nap time for you too.”

James made his way to the rocking chair and reached out for her to pass him his son, but Lily waved him off, “No, it’s fine. I’ve got him.”

“I know what sleep deprivation looks like, Lily. Plus he needs fed and you’ve one good arm.” He made the passing gesture again, “Come on.”

She sighed, but knew there was no changing his mind so she passed off the baby and made her way to the door. Before heading down the hall she turned back, watching her brother make silly faces at his son. 

James hadn’t ever talked about kids until he married Logan. She could remember a time when he never considered marriage either.

  
  
Now, watching how naturally that little boy fit into the crook of his elbow, she couldn’t imagine him without Logan at his side or without Noa in his arms. He’d taken to fatherhood so naturally. 

Lysander would too. 

And suddenly the image she’d been trying to picture before was in screaming color. Sander chasing their boy down the hall of the cottage. Rocking a baby girl to sleep on the back terrace of her flat in the city. Fighting over names and nursery colors and when to let them learn how to fly. 

Lily’s instincts were right there was no way she’d be able to do this alone, but she was never meant to. Sander would be there every step of the way - whether they were together or not. She knew better than to think anything less from him.

  
  
And had she gone about this in the right way she might’ve gotten everything she now realized she wanted.

But she panicked and pushed him away.

* * *

“He says you told him to go.”

“Well I didn’t mean forever!”

Lily threw her newly healed arm into the air to emphasize her point. Scorpius, however, wasn’t moved by her passion.

“He said you insinuated you were in love with me.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t great.”

“That you told him to pursue Marsali because you suspected he loved her.”

Lily sat in the leather chair and pushed away from the desk so she spun around with her head in her hands. 

“I get it. I said a lot of stupid and hurtful things! But he has to talk to me! He needs to- what the hell are these?”

Lily stuck her arm out to the desk to stop her motion and then scooted herself closer. The folder that caught her eye looked familiar and flipping through it revealed why. She’d seen these divorce papers before, however, these ones had a new feature.

“You signed them?”

Scorpius simply put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the desk, “She was meant to take them with her.”

“Take them with her - She was at the manor?!”

  
  
Scorpius pushed off from the desk and crossed the room to the wall of windows. “I believe we were discussing your calamity.”

“Up until yours became far more interesting,” Lily spun around in the chair to follow him. She could tell he wasn’t interested in carrying the conversation further, which meant, “You definitely snogged her, then.”

His shoulders tensed, “There was more shouting then snogging I can assure you.” He moved back to the desk and leaned against it again, “and then her fiancé called and off she ran.”

“Merlin! I leave for one week and I miss everything.” Lily rocked in the desk chair back and forth. “And that’s just it, then. You really want to let her go?”

Scorpius let out a long sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, “It’s become abundantly clear that my wants are not at the forefront of her decisions.”

  
  
“Does she even know what you want?” Lily all but launched herself forward, leaning on her knees, “In all that snogging and shouting did you tell her you’re still in love with her?”

“One would presume snogging suggested a desire for reconciliation-”

  
  
“She’s engaged, mate!” Lily pushed her hair behind her ear so she could be sure to meet her friend’s eyes, “Even if she does want to be with you that complicates everything. She’s not going to just drop someone who wants to marry her for someone who might, possibly, maybe want to give it a second try.”

“Am I to get a lecture on relationships now?” He responded with his jaw starting to tighten, “From you of all people?”

Lily bit at her lip to keep from responding with the first rude response that came to mind. Instead she leaned back in the chair again and simply sighed, “You get so posh when you’re annoyed.”

Scorpius simply shook his head back and forth before turning to the one open window again. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair and breathed in the fresh air. 

“What’s even put you up to this?” He asked, his back still turned, “Not a week ago the two of you were at each other’s throats. Now you’re suggesting I pursue her?”

“I like to zag when people think I’m gonna zig.” Lily pushed against the floor so that the chair spun around quickly. The room began to blur into blobs of colors and streaks of light. 

“Yes. I believe that’s why your bloke won’t speak to you.” Scorpius had caught the back of the chair and brought an abrupt end to her spinning.

“Fair enough.” She barely whispered while the room started to take distinct shapes again.

“What’d you want me to say then? That it’s good you signed these? That it’s clearly over between the two of you so you need to move on? That you deserve someone better?”

“It’s missing some expletives, but yes that sounds more like you.” He let go of the chair and stood in the middle of the room with his hands firmly in his pockets, a clear sign that he was finished with their conversation.

Lily pulled her legs up into the chair and rested her chin against her knees. “People used to say that to me about Kit. That I deserved better.” Her tone was much softer then before, “It made me feel so stupid for loving him like I did, but reason and love keep little company.” 

“You’re a poet now too?”

She laughed and brushed her red waves behind her ear again, “It’s from this play that Sander likes.” She hesitated there, thinking back to the night he first quoted the story to her. To the confusion and clarity that moment held in it,  
  
  
“What I’m trying to say is that loving someone isn’t always rational. There’s a difference between who we should be with and who we want to be with. If Rose is who you want then you should tell her that. For your own sake, so you’re not left wondering what if.”

She’d found the story on Logan’s bookshelf one night while wandering around unable to sleep. It was exactly as Lysander described. Mix-ups, mischief, and all living happily ever after. She had to shake her head to clear the poetry from her mind.

“At least give her the chance to prove all of us wrong. Maybe all she needs to be better is for someone to believe that she can be.”

This time it was Scorpius who laughed, “Sander told me the same thing a couple months back,” He leaned against the desk again, “only he was talking about you.”

A smile spread across Lily’s face as she thought about how much that boy loved her. For a moment her mind shot back to his brother, accusing her of cowardice and knowing it was true. 

“That’s exactly why he deserves someone much better than me. Cause I get that it’s not fair...The way I’ve toyed with him through all of this- and then to expect that he’d just come running back to me. I know I deserve the cold shoulder he’s giving,” She shook her head back and forth and bit at her lip again, “...but I love him.” She shrugged and hugged her knees to her chest. “And I want him to choose me anyways.”

It wasn’t clear how Scorpius was taking her impassioned speech until he finally responded, “I’ll speak with him again- but I’m not promising anything. I have no interest in meddling where I’m not wanted, I’m not that much of a Potter.”

Lily smiled brightly again, “That’s so cute. You thinking you’ve not meddled…”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Relationships, however, required some give and take. And while Lysander knew he was still willing to give whatever was needed to make theirs work, he wasn’t as certain he could take her disappearing anymore.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Stop telling me half-truths.”

The twin boys stared one another down, each waiting for the other to break. It was a silly ritual since they both knew who always won. 

“I’ve told you everything, Lorcan.” Lysander tossed his fork into his dinner plate, the last bite of pasta still spun around its tines.

He rubbed the back of his hand at his eyebrow and slouched back in the kitchen chair, having lost his appetite at the retelling of his heartbreak for the third time. 

“So it’s over?” Lorcan asked, taking another bite. His meal was unaffected by the conversation, “Completely over?”

Lysander inhaled sharply before rising and taking his plate to the sink, “Why is that such a hard concept for you to grasp?”

“Maybe because half her closet is still scattered across your bedroom floor.”  
  
The standing twin could feel his jaw tighten as he held back the urge to simply shout obscenities. Partly because his brother was being beyond frustrating, but also because he was being frustratingly accurate.

He began a retreat into his bedroom, but could hear footsteps follow right after him.  
  
Lysander sat in his desk chair and opened a book to pretend to read in an effort to shake off his shadow, but Lorcan simply leaned against the doorframe, a piece of garlic bread in hand.

“And you’re reading her law book.”

Looking down, Lysander read ‘Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Case Law Section 7.4 C’. His eyes then traced around his room and couldn’t deny that Lily’s things had taken it over; not in the least by leaving her washing across the chair in the corner as well as scattered around it just as Lorcan had suggested.

Lysander could still hear her complaining when he closed his eyes. How could she have nothing to wear to her own party? Why did she even own this dress, it was the ugliest shade of green. She must’ve put on six different outfits before deciding on the one dripping in colorful sequins. 

“Trust me, that’s not even close to half her closet. She won’t miss what she’s left.”

He spun around in the chair so the memories of her could stay behind him.

“No.” 

“No?” 

“No, you’re not doing this.” 

Lorcan bit into the piece of bread so he could have free use of his hands before pushing into the room. He took the desk chair with both hands and tilted it forward so it spilled his brother out the other end and forced him to his feet.

  
  
“Moping about the house, second guessing if she ever felt something for you.” He mumbled around the bread in his mouth, “You’ve been around Malfoy far too much.” 

Lysander felt a laugh escape him at the thought of being compared to someone as muted and calm as Scorpius. He must have been truly sulking.

Finally Lorcan took the food out of his mouth, chewing the bite he’d taken before speaking again, “Shall I state the obvious?”

Lysander let out a sigh before gesturing for his brother to go for it.

“Were it actually over, you would tell her so.” And with that he ate the final bite of bread with the arrogance of someone who knew he wouldn’t need to speak again anytime soon.

The saddened twin pinched at the skin between his eyes with a shake of his head. Of course his brother was right. He never had trouble breaking up before this. It had always been such clear decisions, such obvious endings. 

But he didn’t want to leave Lily - she told him to go. 

And now she changed her mind? Now she wanted to talk? She’d even sent Scorpius after him, but so far he’d been able to stand his ground. He was fully aware of the immaturity he displayed by avoiding her, but couldn’t figure out a better strategy. 

If he saw Lily he’d forgive her. If he forgave her he’d fall right back into her arms and pretend they never even split up and he couldn’t keep doing that. 

“I can’t just run back to her every time she gets scared and pushes me away.” He finally vocalized out loud.

Lorcan crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged his shoulders, “Why not?”  
  


Lysander let out a huff of disbelief, sitting on his bed. His brother was one firmly against this relationship. He was the one warning him not to get involved - that exactly what happened was going to happen, “Who even are you right now?”

“Don’t misunderstand me, I definitely agree with you.” His brother moved his hands to his pockets with another shrug, “I think being with someone like Lily is accepting a life of uncertainty and I’d want nothing to do with it....but you’re not me.”

Lysander fell back onto the bed and covered his face with his hands. 

“Don’t get comfortable - we’re going out. You’ve twenty minutes to sulk while I get ready.” Lorcan knocked his brother's leg with his own, “Thanks for dinner, by the way. A little heavy handed with the basil, though.”

Lysander couldn’t help but laugh at his brother’s critique before turning away from the door to stare at himself in the mirror near his dresser. The dark shadows starting to form under his eyes suggested he needed more sleep, but he didn’t suppose he’d be getting much that night.

Then his eyes unfocused on his own image and instead took in the photos that had been stuffed in the sides of the frame over the past year. Moments. That’s what Lily liked to call them.  
  
But her camera was broken beyond repair now. If she was going to capture more memories she’d need to find something new to do it with. Maybe she needed to find someone new as well.

Lysander reached out and pulled one of the photos so he could have a closer look. He remembered the day it was taken. They were all out at the Potter’s cottage playing a pick-up game of quidditch. Scorpius had been staying with Lily for a bit and they’d spent almost every night in a different pub. Everything was simpler back then.  
  
She was hanging over his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear with a quaffle in hand. She swore she could win a game of keep away if they agreed to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground, but was still terribly out of shape compared to the professional athletes and lost in an embarrassingly short amount of time. Still, she argued that he caught her - not the quaffle - and therefore still won the bet. 

There never seemed to be any winning an argument with her; she’d definitely chosen the right career path. Relationships, however, required some give and take. And while Lysander knew he was still willing to give whatever was needed to make theirs work, he wasn’t as certain he could take her disappearing anymore. 

* * *

Lysander reached out for his pillow, but couldn’t find it. Insisting on its need, he decided to roll over and increase his search area. However, that search area wasn’t there to catch him and instead he spun all the way to the floor.

That’s when he remembered he hadn’t been sleeping in his own bed, but on the sofa at Albus and Charlotte’s home in London. He rubbed at a spot on the back of his head that had collided with the hard floor, then let out a long yawn. Never again was he agreeing to help someone move. 

Then again, he realized, Scorpius hadn’t asked for his help- he simply offered. He needed a distraction, something to help clear his mind.

His eyes wandered over the room and the boxes and chests full of old Malfoy trinkets before they landed on a peacoat hanging on the coat rack near the front door. Something in the pocket was emitting a soft amber glow as if a firefly had been trapped inside.

Letting out a deep sigh, he retrieved the folded parchment and sat at the island counter to read the note that had caused the glow.

_“Hey.”_ Was all it said. 

Even with only three letters he found himself reading it over and over again. The writing didn’t match his brother, which meant there was only one other person who could have sent him this message.

Then a new line started to scribble beneath the greeting, _“I’m sorry.”_

His head fell back to stare at the ceiling, regretting his earlier decision to share his and Lorcan’s enchantment with her. 

“Shouldn’t you be asleep right about now?” Charlotte had a hand trying to untangle a section of her hair as she trudged into the kitchen.

She let out a yawn before resting both hands on her very pregnant belly. 

“Shouldn’t you?” he smiled warmly.

“I’m nearing eight months pregnant and my husband’s off chasing who knows what who knows where so sleep isn’t really an achievable goal.”

She opened the freezer and pulled out a tub of chocolate ice cream before turning back around and pulling two spoons from the island counter. 

“Brain freeze is though.”

She left one spoon in reach of Lysander and used the other to dig into the frozen treat. After a couple bites she pointed her spoon at his parchment.

“Are you just going to stare at it all night?”

He picked up his spoon and scooped his own bite out before speaking around the cold, “I know I know, I owe it to us to try again and see if we can make it work.” He swallowed the ice cream, but continued to gesture with his utensil, “she’s a complicated person and I knew what I was signing up for and everyone warned me and I didn’t listen and when you play with fireworks you’re gonna get burned.”

Charlotte took another bite before licking the spoon, “I was going to offer you a quill is all.”

Lysander was happy to laugh again as another shadow came into the room. 

“Is anyone aware of the hour?”

Scorpius didn’t wait for an invitation, but found his own spoon and dug out a bite of comfort food.

“Is he still not talking to her, then?” The blonde asked Charlotte as if the person they were talking about wasn’t sat across from them.

The Hufflepuff shook her head back and forth, “Hasn’t made his mind up yet.”

Lysander simply rolled his eyes at their antics before looking down at the parchment again, knowing they were right. 

“What about you?” She asked Malfoy before pointing her spoon at him accusingly.

“He got into it with Rose last week and no one’s seen her since.” Lysander licked his spoon clean and then stuck it to his nose to balance without using his hands.

“She’s been staying in Camden with Hugo.” 

Both men looked over at Charlotte who simply shrugged, “just because you two decided to be hermits doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t still talk.”

The spoon fell from Lysander’s face and crashed into the table after only a couple moments, but he reapplied it for a second attempt.

“Got into it huh?” Charlotte pestered.

But Scorpius had never been one to take the bait, “It wasn’t really of note.”

“Oh right, so you definitely snogged her.” Charlotte assumed.

Lysander pulled the spoon from his face so he could make the proper shocked facial expressions required to convey his current emotional state, “you did what?!”

Still unmoved, Scorpius shrugged. 

“As I stated it’s nothing of note. Yes, we snogged a bit and then we shouted a bit and then she left to see her fiance off on another adventure.”

His spoon swung left to write as he listed the events before ending with it dug into the tub of ice cream.

“She’s really not reached out at all?” Charlotte asked with a hint of disappointment in her voice. 

Scorpius shakes his head back and forth before something caught his eye and they all turned back to the parchment, _“Please say something.”_

“Meanwhile, Lily won’t leave me alone.”

“I don’t know,” Scorpius started, “I admire her persistence.”

Lysander simply huffed and pushed away from the counter, unable to stomach the choice staring back at him. He stormed off letting the front door shut behind him.

“There’s a quill in the desk over there.”

Charlotte pointed with her spoon again into the living room, but Scorpius didn’t even follow her gesture. 

“The last time you meddled my ex-wife got pissed drunk and started a brawl with your sister-in-law, which - one could argue - led to that poor kid’s heartbreak.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, I sent an invitation.”

  
  
Charlotte pulled the quill and ink from its drawer before returning to the island counter.

“And it’s not like I’m going to pretend to be Sander.” She dipped the quill and twirled it between her fingers while she thought about what she should write.   
  


_“Sander’s at mine for the weekend. We’re helping Scorp move house tomorrow. - Lotte”_

“See?” she shrugged, proud of herself.

Scorpius took another bite, “You need to have this baby. Growing a Potter has you behaving like one.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just give him space. Just give him time. But didn’t anyone else understand how terrifying the prospect of time and space were? Didn’t anyone else see that those were the exact things keeping Rose and Scorpius apart?

“Enough with the silent treatment. ‘Sander you’ve never gone more than a minute without talking. You love talking. We both do- talking is one of our favorite hobbies!”

Lily followed after Lysander who was now actively running away from her with a box in his hands. She trailed him into the front room when he suddenly disappeared.

“That’s just great Scamander - apparate away! Very mature!”

She put a hand on her hip before pacing back and forth across the room, too frustrated to sit down.

Albus sat down the chest he’d been carrying to comfort his sister, “Give him some time, LP. Whatever you’ve got to say ought to wait until he’s ready to listen.”

Lily, however, had no interest in comfort, “How can you possibly know that? You’ve no idea what I have to say to him.”

Albus exhaled loudly to make his annoyance known before he lifted the chest and apparted away.

“He’s going to speak to you eventually,” Scorpius was headed toward the front door to pick up one of the last boxes, “Just give him some space for now.”

Lily’s spun around on her heels towards him, “If he’s upset with me then he’s welcome to shout. But it’s been weeks! This hiding away nonsense has got to stop.”

“You don’t get to dictate how he responds.” Scorpius opened the front door as if to help her leave.

But, with no interest in leaving, the youngest Potter huffed and sat forcefully onto the couch before crossing her legs. She noticed Scorpius was just standing in the doorway and peeked around to see what stopped him. Of course it’d be Rose. It would always be Rose.

“What are you doing here?" Lily could hear Scorp ask.

Rose, however, gave no answer. Lily’s patience had run out and her frustration was only doubled at the thought of everyone helping Sander continue to dodge her.

"Don't for one second think I won't hang around the pitch all afternoon tomorrow. I can call the Prophet to keep me company. Make a day of it!” She shouted from the sofa. 

“Where are you going?”

Rose’s question carried through the open door and Lily answered before Scorpius could, “He’s running away to the manor.”

Scorpius fiddled with the door handle and let out a long exhale to show his displeasure with the youngest Potter, before he turned back to the front door.

“I’m simply moving the last of my things. Baby Potter’ll be here in another month or so. I have an entire estate; the least I can do is let him have his nursery.”

  
  
“Scorp, can we talk?”

"They’re waiting for me at the manor so I should be off.”

“Please don’t just-” Rose started, but Scorpius had apparated away before she could finish.

Lily rolled her eyes at everyone’s new desire to disappear rather than talk things through, then again when she saw her cousin trudge through the doorway to sit in the armchair across from her. 

“He’s learned that from you,” she accused with her arms crossed.  
  
The rational part of Lily knew that her problems were her own fault, but the irrational pregnant hormonal part still blamed Rose for what happened on the terrace. If she hadn’t been sent to hospital she could have taken time to think things through and process her feelings properly. Without her arm strapped to her, without her boyfriend’s expectations sitting next to her, without - 

Her thoughts were interrupted when she realized that the woman across from her wasn’t on the verge of tears, but was laughing. Lily’s confusion only seemed to egg Rose on more and she howled with laughter while tears still fell out of her eyes. 

“We used to be friends Lily...can you even picture it? I mean imagine us having a pleasant conversation. I keep trying to picture it and it just makes me-”

Rose wasn’t able to finish her sentence because the laughter had taken over. The memories of their days at Hogwarts and holiday parties started to flood Lily’s mind too. The image of her and Rose dancing around to new music, studying for exams and giggling about boys sent the youngest Potter into a laughing spell of her own.  
  
  
“I was your bridesmaid,” she added with a snort. 

There was a time that Lily looked up to her cousin. Rose, afterall, was a queen of mischief- and able to subvert detection in almost every instance. She admired her boldness and decisiveness and sense of adventure - all traits that she now found insufferable.

Painfully, she realized they were traits that they now shared; instincts that had led both of them to hurt people they loved. 

“I get it you know...I didn’t for the longest time.” Lily admitted as their laughter subsided. She brushed the corners of her own eyes to clear the tears away. “I thought you were such a coward for running like you did.”

Rose was still smiling from how cathartic the fit of laughter had been, but she felt the corners of her mouth start to purse at her cousins’ admission. “If this is some other witty retort can you just keep it to yourself? I was finally starting to-”

“I’m pregnant.” Lily blurted out before Rose could finish her sentence and her hand smacked over her mouth the moment the word left her lips.

  
  
The revelation seemed to shock her cousin into silence, but the corners of her mouth curled back into its previous grin. 

Cautiously she asked, “Wait, is that happy or terrifying news?”

Lily lowered her hand and let out a long sigh. “Both,” she chuckled softly to herself, “It’s very much both.”

A weight seemed to fall from her shoulders as her cousin smiled even brighter. 

The youngest Potter took a moment to regain her composure before she continued. “They told me back when I was in hospital and I couldn’t...I just couldn’t believe it.”

It was so cathartic to talk about the emotions she’d had bottled up for the last fortnight and she found herself almost unable to stop once she’d started, 

“Lysander slept in a chair by my bed for hours and I just watched him...thinking how all I wanted to do was run away. So when he woke up that’s exactly what I did.”

She brushed a red curl behind her ear before grabbing one of the throw pillows and holding it in her lap like a security blanket. 

“Surely this isn’t why he’s avoiding you?” Rose asked.

“No, he’s no idea. Nobody does.” Lily admitted, “I’ve not even said it out loud until just now.” She hugged the pillow tighter and let out a sigh, “I panicked and came up with whatever I could to push him away.”

Lily looked back up at Rose with a new wisdom in her eyes. 

“What I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry for being so horrible to you all this time. I judged you so harshly for a circumstance I couldn’t possibly have understood. I mean, Lysander loves me so much and look how I responded” She tried to swallow the heavy breathing that preempted her tears, “...I just don’t know how to love someone like that.”

Despite her efforts, her eyes were still welling with tears and she could feel her cheeks flush.

“Even now, I’m certain the only reason he won’t talk to me is because he knows he’ll forgive me the moment I ask him to. And good on him, cause he deserves better than me anyways.”

She buried her head in her hands and finally let herself cry. How had she let this happen? How had she watched everything between Rose and Scorpius, endured what she had with Kit, and still couldn’t see her own destructive behavior until it was too late?  
  
  
But it wasn’t too late.

She started to pull herself back together remembering the truth of the situation rather than the lies her mind liked to use to unravel her. Lysander wasn’t Kit. Lysander wasn’t Scorpius. Lysander wasn’t her. 

He was going to speak to her eventually. 

She felt Rose move to the cushion next to her, “If you’re not trying to get back together, why are you so adamant he talks with you?”

“Why were you trying to talk with Scorpius?” 

Lily didn’t miss a beat or lift her head. She realized only after speaking how curt she’d been, her instincts to defend her friend rearing their ugly head. 

Rose didn’t retaliate, but instead leaned on her cousin’s shoulder in a rare display of comradery, “I didn’t want to leave things how we left them…”

“Snogging him you mean?” Lily asked with a chortle finally lifting her head to see her cousin’s expression.?

“It wasn’t- we’re not...it was a mistake.” Rose pulled her legs onto the couch and took the pillow from her cousin so she’d have something to hold. "He’s losing his father, he’s grieving...and I never gave him the chance for closure so of course there are unresolved emotions.”

Lily could hear the recitation in her excuses. Scorpius had rattled off excuses too; neither party seemed ready to accept how much the exchange meant to them.

Just as Lily was about to mention the similarity, the front door opened again and Charlotte walked through it. She didn’t seem at all surprised to see Lily in her home, but she did take note of there being two redheads on the same couch.

“It’s eerie seeing the two of you sitting there together so calm.” Charlotte offered calmly, sitting the bushels of flowers in her hands onto the table near the door.

“Rose snogged Scorp.”

“Mmhmm,” Charlotte responded casually as she sat the remaining flowers in her arm onto the counter. “You’ll never believe how much that thief tried to charge me for marigolds...”

It wasn’t until she turned back to the red heads that she realized their news was supposed to have shocked her.

“People tell me things.” She sunk into the armchair and Lily felt her own stomach flip over itself while Charlotte caressed her round belly. “Sorry, I’m usually much better at this ‘pretending to be shocked’ bit, but I’m eight months pregnant and my capacity for secret keeping is hitting Albus levels of low.”

She kicked her off her shoes and adjusted in her chair, “Did you speak with him just now? He was supposed to be clearing the last of his things.”

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but Lily interrupted again,

“So you know where Sander is, then? You know whether he’s going to ever talk to me again? You know if he’s already moved on and forgotten all about me and never wants to look at me again or think about me again or-”

Charlotte waved her hand at the Potter, insisting that she wasn’t divulging any of that information. Lily swallowed the rest of her questions and let her head fall to the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling. 

Patience. 

Just give him space.

Just give him time.

He was going to speak to her eventually.

But didn’t anyone else understand how terrifying the prospect of time and space were? Didn’t anyone else see that those were the exact things keeping Rose and Scorpius apart? 

Well that and an extra fiancé.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love faces too many obstacles without adding our outside judgement.

“Those are antique, 18th century, French sabers. Not. Playthings.”

Lysander and Lorcan froze in place, their faux sword fighting coming to an abrupt halt. 

“Besides, your footwork is shameful.”

Scorpius continued past the brothers with an armful of books on his way to the study and the brothers relaxed again. They continued their fake bout until Lysander narrowly missed his blade running through the nearby armoire and both decided it was best to find a different way to occupy their attention.

Unpacking seemed the obvious choice so they began unloading another box of books, following the tallest blonde back and forth from the shelves.

“Have you even read these? Do you have any intention of ever reading them?” Lysander asked, flipping through the thick pages of a red covered novel, “Or do posh people just shove anything with a cover on their shelves to look well read?”

“The excesses of wealth.” Scorpius muttered, mostly to himself. 

For a moment, Lysander regretted his comment, realizing the insult he hadn’t meant to imply. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Scorpius beat him to speaking.

The chaser took the book from his friend and flipped to the front page before handing it back, “Most of them were my mum’s.”

The evidence was on the page when Lysander looked down, ‘for my Astoria.’ 

  
Lysander smiled at the sentimentality of it all. He reached into the box again and pulled out another, much thinner option. Flipping to the front page, he found another note, ‘I suppose all we’ve got now is time, and I intend to spend it learning why this one entices you so.’

His smirk turned down in the corners, realizing what little time Draco and Astoria actually had together. Then his mind turned at the thought of what little time was left for Draco and Scorpius to mend their broken relationship. His next thought lunged further forward, to the time squandered between Rose and Scorpius. And, as was always inevitable, he rested on the thought of Lily Potter. 

Time. 

That’s what he kept asking her for. Time and space to think. To figure out what he wanted, what he could handle, more importantly, what he couldn’t.

And she’d finally given him that time and space. Nearly a full week she hadn’t reached out to him at all and she hadn’t even tried to sneak Albus or Charlotte or Scorpius after him either. 

“Does some of this need to be returned to Rose?” Lorcan interrupted his brother’s introspection. 

Lysander looked up, expecting the usual apathetic response from Scorpius, but instead the blonde had his eyebrows pulled tightly together, almost intrigued. 

“Portkey authorizations to Cairo, Hong Kong, Israel, Istanbul, New York-”

“Never mind those.” Scorpius finally shrugged, “Toss them out, even.”

“Are you certain? Some of these are still active.”

Lysander moved to his brother’s side and peered over his shoulder at the pages, his own curiosity now peeked. 

“Your name’s on these, Scorp.” He processed aloud, “You’ve got some sort of international travel hobby you’ve not shared? Or wait…” Lysander paused, realizing Scorpius didn’t care for travel, but cared deeply for a certain wanderlust Weasley. “You’ve not been stalking the girl all this time, have ya?”

“Of course not.” Scorpius, his patience worn thin, took the folder from the twins and let it drop into the bin next to a stack of boxes. “I went after her in Cairo, but…” he trailed off for a moment, lost in the memory.

After shaking his head a bit, he finished the thought, “Then, every so often, I’d get the bright idea to go after her again, but haven’t.”

Scorpius paused for a moment before turning to one of the chests and unlocking it. He began searching through its contents while Lysander found himself gobsmacked. 

“What happened?” Lorcan asked, adjusting his glasses. 

“When?” Scorpius asked, his head still buried in the chest full of dress robes and old Hogwarts kit.

“When you went after her in Cairo, obviously.” Lorcan sat in one of the nearby armchairs and leaned on his forearms. “There’s got to be a story in that.”

“Does there?” Scorpius let out a scoff of laughter, closing the chest without managing to sort through any of it effectively, “Sorry to disappoint, but there’s not. I went, saw she was moved on, came back and wallowed for half a decade.”  
  
  
Lorcan pressed the young Malfoy further, “How did you know she was moved on?”

Scorpius didn’t answer, instead choosing to remind Lorcan he was invited over to assist in unpacking his house, not his emotional baggage. 

Lysander watched their conversation continue, but wasn’t listening anymore. Instead his mind was running laps again. Someone else’s arm wrapped around Lily’s waist. The idea that someone else would be watching her try on dress after dress or giggling while they ran away from photographers.

“I have to go.” Lysander shouted abruptly into the on-going conversation before abruptly apparating away. 

Lorcan stood to follow after him, while Scorpius instead took a seat in the opposite armchair. “There’s no need to chase after him. He’ll be back in a few moments.”

Lorcan asked his meaning, but before an answer could be attempted Lysander appeared behind where Scorpius was sitting.

“She’s not home.”

“She’s at the cottage all weekend.” Scorpius tapped against the velvet upholstery. 

“Come on then.” Lysander rushed around the chair so Scorpius could see his impatient expression. 

“Why does this endeavor involve me?”

“Someone’s got to let down the charms and protections.”

“Get Albus.” Scorpius dismissed himself from the adventure.

“Albus is tracking that thief from the explosion in Kings Cross the other day.” Lorcan interjected.

“Then apparate outside the gate and shout for the girl.”

“The press are outside the gate - thus the need for charms and protections - thus the need for you to let them down, thus the need for you to come along - thus - just come on!” 

Lysander put a hand on his mate’s shoulder, egging him into apparating.

“Oi! I’m not sitting alone in this manor while you lot go make some grand romantic gesture.” 

Lorcan put his hand on Scorpius’s other shoulder, insisting all three were going to be making this journey. Scorpius closed his eyes and took a deep breath in before finally huffing and concentrating on the Tudor architecture of the Potter’s summer cottage. He focused on the smell of the back woods, the sun pouring in the back windows, the flowers that lined the way to the sage colored front door.

And when he opened his eyes he was staring at it. He felt the twins release his shoulders and reached out to stop them from barging in, but wasn’t quick enough.  
  
Lysander was silently telling himself to stay calm. To stay level-headed and objective. He thought he’d have a few rooms to travel through and continue his pep talk.

Instead he poured into the front room and came face to face with a sea of Potter and Weasley women staring his way with their jaws near the floor.

  
  
His eyes tracked across the women spread over two couches, to the two standing near the mirrors. Rose was wrapped in expensive white fabric that cascaded to the floor, lace details ruffling along the bodice. A brunette Lysander didn’t recognize had her wand out, mending the gown’s sleeves. 

Then Lily stood from the sofa just in front of him and no one else in the room mattered. 

She didn’t say anything, but took both of his hands in hers and none of his pep talk mattered. 

He could see the apology in her eyes, the giddiness that he’d come for her in her grin, and the peace that seeing his own smile always brought her in the way her shoulders lost their tension.

“So sorry to invade your luncheon, my brother needed to speak with Lily.” Lorcan spoke into the silent audience.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Lysander didn’t even pretend to care about the others in the room, his eyes still trained on Lily’s. “I hadn’t been to the cottage in a while. And since Albus is chasing after a rogue-”

“Nope. He’s just at the ministry. Filing paperwork probably...not doing anything dangerous.” Lorcan cut in seeing the mix of concern and anger on Charlotte’s face at her husband’s chosen profession.

“Right. Yeah.” Lysander scratched at the back of his neck, finally tearing his eyes away from Lily’s smile. He gestured behind him, “Scorp was with us though, so it all worked out.” 

Lysander turned back, lost in the possibilities of a life with the woman he loved all over again.

He didn’t notice the stolen glance between Scorpius and the woman in white. 

“Maybe you two want to find somewhere private to carry on?”

Malfoy suggested and Lysander watched Lily bite at her bottom lip to keep from laughing. 

“Yeah. Right. Excuse us, sorry again - we’re just going to...” He rambled before Lily drug him towards the back door at an almost run.

They weren’t past the archways that hung over the back patio before her lips found him like a magnetic force had pulled them together. She jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. They spun for a moment while he tried to find his balance without being willing to separate from her. 

“I’m so sorry, Sander.”

“Forgiven.”

She smiled against his kiss and they both giggled in the way they only did with each other. 

“Wait, stop spinning,” she suddenly pulled away from him.

He dropped her legs so she could stable herself, but continued to hold her close to help steady her. She took a deep breath in through her nose and then blew it back out.

“I have to tell you something.” She looked up at him, fear and joy in her eyes.

He brushed her red curls from her face, “We don’t have to go over all of it now. Your family’s in there...I just wanted you to know-”

She put a finger to his lips to stop him from going on, “If I don’t tell you now, it’ll be months before I find the courage again and by then it won’t need to be said.”

She laughed to herself before taking another calming breath, “Before I tell you though, I want you to understand that I’m not asking for anything. You don’t have to promise anything or be anything more than what you want to be.”

“What I want is to be with you, love.” He took her hands in his like she had before, “As long as you’ll have me.”

“Sander.” 

“I mean it.” He assured her, “We can do whatever - we can be whatever we want. Do you wanna get married? Your cousin’s got a dress ready.” He nodded back to the cottage. “You don’t believe in marriage? That’s fine too we can just be together.” 

“Let’s travel the world or never leave London again. Quit our jobs and be farmers. Train dragons, write novels.” He pressed his forehead to hers, the magnetic force bringing them together again, “We could have 2.5 kids and the white picket fence or no kids at all cause they always manage to find something sticky even when there’s nothing sticky around them…so long as we decide together it doesn’t matter” 

They both laughed again and Lysander pulled away Lily was wiping tears from the corner of her eyes. 

“Are those overjoyed tears or have I pushed too far again?”

Lily’s smile somehow got brighter before she wiped her face against the sleeve of her cardigan.

“I have to tell you something.” 

They’d gone into the backyard for privacy, but it couldn’t fully provide that. There were at least three windows and a glass door letting in a room full of natural light. Currently, however, that light would need to find a way through the room full of british wizards who’d all lept at the chance to spy on the couple outdoors.

Which meant no one saw the moment happening with the couple behind them, uncomfortably left staring into a mirror of what could have been. 

And Scorpius knew in that moment that it was time to let go. What he didn’t know were the doubts cycling through Rose’s mind in a constant race to see which would drive her decisions.

The prying onlookers cheered watching Lysander spin Lily around again; both of them grinning wildly. 

Love faces too many obstacles without adding our outside judgement. Too many loves are quick bright things; shiny and beautiful and passionate, but doomed to fade against time. So it didn’t matter that the crowd didn’t hear the news Lily told her Sander, they were happy and clearly in love and that’s always worth cheering on. 


End file.
